David Gill (astronomer)

Sir David Gill ( born June 12, 1843 in Aberdeen, Scotland, † January 24, 1914 in London) was a British astronomer.

Gill initially dealt with practical astronomy at the observatory in Aberdeen ( 1866) and established in 1868 in the house of his father own an observatory. In 1872 he was commissioned by Lord Lindsey in Dun Real Aberdeen at an observatory, whose director he was. As such, he undertook an expedition to Mauritius in 1874 to determine the solar parallax measurements by Heliometer. On this occasion he made ​​a number of important provisions length.

In 1876 he gave up his position in real Dun and went on a trip to the island of Ascension. Here Gill used the parallax of Mars to determine the distance to the sun. He also perfected the use of heliometer.

He was Her Majesty's Astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope. He also edited the salaried 1835-1881 observations of over 500 stellar occultations, organized and led a series of telegraphic longitude determinations on the African coast, and organized in 1882 the South African stations for observing the transit of Venus.

1883 Gill began a geodetic survey of South Africa. He was also a pioneer in astrophotography. His carried out between 1885 and 1890 survey of the southern sky covered all stars between -20 ° south latitude and the south pole up to the size 9.5. The recordings also formed the basis of many interesting discoveries star, such as the Kapteyn's star, which could be discovered on his brought to Europe photographic plates.

Between 1888 and 1890 led Gill in collaboration with a number of other observatories for a project he designed a series of observations of asteroids Iris, Victoria and Sappho through to determine a more accurate value of the solar parallax.

1900 David Gill was awarded the Bruce Medal. The Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, he received twice (1882 and 1908 ).

David Gill died on January 24, 1914 in London.

The lunar crater Gill and Mars crater Gill are named after him.