Ralph Allen Sampson
Ralph Allen Sampson ( born June 25, 1866 in Schull, County Cork, Ireland, † November 7, 1939 in Bath ) was a British astronomer.
Sampson was one of five children of a chemist from Cornwall. Through bad investments in a mine in Cornwall, the family lived ( his father died early) in straitened circumstances, so that he could attend school in Liverpool until the age of 14, then excelled, however, through its achievements, particularly in mathematics. He graduated in 1884 with a fellowship at St John 's College (Cambridge) with the conclusion of 1888th He was also a student of John Couch Adams, who was his tutor for the Mathematical Tripos examinations in which he was 1888 Third Wrangler. In 1889 he received the Smith Prize and was named a Fellow of St. John 's College. In 1891 he was awarded the Isaac Newton Studentship in Astronomy and physical optics. He has published over hydrodynamics and astrophysics (models of the internal structure of the Sun). In 1895 he became professor of mathematics at Durham College in Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1895 he became Professor of Mathematics in Durham ( that is, in which is situated in Durham part of the University, later the University of Durham ) and was director of the observatory in Durham. In 1910 he became Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. In 1937, he retired for health reasons and moved to Bath.
He explored as pioneers measuring the color temperature of stars. In addition, he developed theories of motion of the four Galilean moons, for which he was awarded the 1928 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. At that time, there were discrepancies between the observations - for Sampson 's observations of the Harvard College Observatory auswertete - and the celestial mechanics predictions. He published in 1910 panels of the positions of the four moons of Jupiter from 1850 to 2000 and 1921 appeared his book Theory of the four great satellites of Jupiter ( Royal Astronomical Society, London). In Edinburgh, he was primarily concerned with timing (he was the first president of the Commission de l' today ) and of geometrical optics and optical correction of errors of telescopes.
He also published in 1900, the unpublished manuscripts of John Couch Adams within the factory output. Especially so in 1903 he was a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1911 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, which he was general secretary from 1923 to 1933 and their Keith Price, he received 1919. In 1915 he received the Hopkins Prize of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. He was an honorary doctorate from the University of Durham (D. Sc.) And the University of Glasgow ( LL.D. ).
1915 to 1917 he was president of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The lunar crater Sampson was named after him.
He was married in 1894 and had three daughters and a son.