Charles Piazzi Smyth

Charles Piazzi Smyth ( born January 3, 1819 in Naples, Italy, † February 21, 1900 in Ripon, England) was a Scottish astronomer and esoterics.

Life

Smyth was the son of the astronomer William Henry Smyth; he had his middle name from his godfather, the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi. After the family moved from southern Italy to Bedford he received from his father first instruction in astronomy. At age 16, he went to South Africa where he was Sir Thomas Maclear as assistant to the astronomers working at the Cape of Good Hope. In 1845 he was Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. In 1865, Smyth traveled to Egypt, where he surveyed the Great Pyramid at Giza and anfertigte photographic recordings from their interior. In 1888 he gave up his offices and lived in retirement until his death in 1900.

Smyth was considered a brilliant but eccentric. His studies on the suitability of high altitude peaks of Tenerife as the location for an astronomical observatory in 1856 are regarded as pioneering. Likewise, he pioneered the use of photography ( Daguerre had as his method just made ​​known ) in 1839, Smyth began to experiment with the new technology. His recordings of South African motifs from 1843 are considered the earliest from that area. Also significant is his contribution to the solution of the problem meridian of La Caille. Spectra of polar lights, the zodiacal light and in the infrared wavelength range were his specialty. 1877/78 he created an accurate representation of the solar spectrum, for which he received the 1880 Macdougall - Brisbane Prize.

Smyth was also known for his commitment to Pyramidology: on the basis of his survey work on the Great Pyramid of Cheops (which later turned out to be not as reliable ), he defended the thesis in the dimensions of this building prophecies and other mystic information was hidden.

The Bent Pyramid, however, Smyth had to admit that assessments can not be predictable and vermessbar ( eg for the calculation of an excavation duration) always.

The lunar crater Piazzy Smyth was named after him.

Works

  • Three Cities in Russia. - London: Lovell Reeve & Co., 1862
  • Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid. - London: A. Strahan, 1864
  • Life and Work at the Great Pyramid. 3 volumes. - Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1867
  • On the Antiquity of Intellectual Man: from a Practical and Astronomical point of view. - Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1868
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