James Carpenter (1840–1899) was a British astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. During the 1860s he performed the first observations of stellar spectra at the observatory, under the direction of the Astronomer Royal George Airy. In 1861–62 he was one of three astronomers to successfully observe the dark underside of the rings of Saturn, the other two astronomers being William Wray and Otto Struve.
In 1871, the engineer James Nasmyth partnered with James Carpenter to produce a book about the Moon titled, The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite. This work was illustrated by photographs of plaster models representing the lunar surface, with the illumination from various angles. The result was more realistic images of the lunar surface than could be achieved by telescope photography during that period. The authors were proponents for a volcanic origin of the craters, a theory that was later proved incorrect.
The crater Carpenter on the Moon is jointly named after him and Edwin Francis Carpenter.
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Carpenter, James |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1840 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | 1899 |
| Place of death | |
Famous quotes containing the words james and/or carpenter:
“If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing. It would take us as long to recall a space of time as it took the original time to elapse, and we should never get ahead with our thinking. All recollected times undergo, accordingly, what M. Ribot calls foreshortening; and this foreshortening is due to the omission of an enormous number of facts which filled them.”
—William James (1842–1910)
““But there’s always been rich and poor, and that’s all there is to it. And us two won’t change it, either.”
The carpenter calmly puffs away: “Only the ones that likes it ought to be poor. Let the others have a try at it first. I ain’t got no liking for it. A fellow gets tired of it after a while.””
—Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)