Nevil Maskelyne | |
---|---|
Born | 6 October 1732 London, England |
Died | 9 February 1811 Greenwich, Kent, England | (aged 78)
Title | Astronomer Royal |
Awards | Royal Society Copley Medal (1775) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Astronomy |
Institutions |
|
Nevil Maskelyne FRS FRSE (/ˈmæskəlɪn/;[1] 6 October 1732 – 9 February 1811) was the fifth British Astronomer Royal.[a] He held the office from 1765 to 1811. He was the first person to scientifically measure the mass of the planet Earth.[2] He created The Nautical Almanac, in full the British Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the Meridian of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich using Tobias Mayer's corrections for Euler's Lunar Theory tables.
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