Astronomer Royal
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Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- title of honor
- Subclass of
- astronomer
Show 3 more facts
- topic's main category
- Category:Astronomers Royal
- inception
- 1675-06-22
- female form of label
- Astrònoma reial
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
John Flamsteed, the first astronomer royal, by Thomas Gibson. Royal Society, London. Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834.
The Astronomer Royal works to make observations to improve navigation, cartography, instrument design, and applications of geomagnetism. The position was created with the overall goal of discovering a way to determine longitude at sea when out of sight of land. The incumbent Astronomer Royal is Professor Michele Dougherty.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Astronomer Royal” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.