ASTRONOMER

Edmond Halley

1656 - 1742

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Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; 8 November [O.S. 29 October] 1656 – 25 January 1742 [O.S. 14 January 1741]) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720. From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Halley catalogued the southern celestial hemisphere and recorded a transit of Mercury across the Sun. He realised that a similar transit of Venus could be used to determine the distances between Earth, Venus, and the Sun. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Edmond Halley is the 6th most popular astronomer (up from 23rd in 2019), the 42nd most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 253rd in 2019) and the most popular British Astronomer.

Edmond Halley is most famous for his comet that orbits the sun and reappears every 76 years.

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Among ASTRONOMERS

Among astronomers, Edmond Halley ranks 6 out of 644. Before him are Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Giordano Bruno, and Ptolemy. After him are Tycho Brahe, Anders Celsius, Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers, William Herschel, Aristarchus of Samos, and Hipparchus.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1656, Edmond Halley ranks 1. After him are Marin Marais, Kateri Tekakwitha, Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, Anton Florian, Prince of Liechtenstein, Nicolas de Largillière, Guillaume Dubois, Robert de Cotte, Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, and Ferdinand de Marsin. Among people deceased in 1742, Edmond Halley ranks 1. After him are Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Charles III Philip, Elector Palatine, Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco, Pylyp Orlyk, Arvid Horn, Luigi Guido Grandi, Friedrich Hoffmann, Magdalena Wilhelmine of Württemberg, Jean-Baptiste Dubos, and Carlos Seixas.

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Edmond Halley ranks 42 out of 8,785. Before him are Mary II of England (1662), Michael Faraday (1791), Edward V of England (1470), Agatha Christie (1890), H. G. Wells (1866), and Thomas Hobbes (1588). After him are Alexander Graham Bell (1847), Mary I of England (1516), Charles Dickens (1812), Alan Turing (1912), Alexander Fleming (1881), and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (1947).

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Among ASTRONOMERS In United Kingdom

Among astronomers born in United Kingdom, Edmond Halley ranks 1. After him are Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943), William Lassell (1799), Martin Ryle (1918), Arthur Eddington (1882), Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900), John Michell (1724), James Bradley (1693), John Flamsteed (1646), Fred Hoyle (1915), Antony Hewish (1924), and John Russell Hind (1823).

British born Astronomers

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