Thursday November 15, 1894

D^r Doberck here computing some old comet obs^ns in library.
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William Christie, Astronomer Royal

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RH says..... This was the Dr Doberck who had called on 3 October to complain about his colleague in Hong Kong. He was best known as a double-star observer but this work on comets may have helped satisfy his frustrated desire to do research. He was, presumably, working in the 'New Library', designed at the end of George Airy's tenure as Astronomer Royal and completed under Christie. This photograph, taken before the Physical Observatory was completed and before work on the Altazimuth Pavilion started, shows the library on the right-hand side, with Flamsteed House and the dome of the 28-inch telescope in the background and the hut, offices and equipment of the Magnetic and Meteorological department and the top of the Lassell Dome in the foreground.

Monday October 8, 1894

Miss Pritchard called with reference to a biography of Prof. Pritchard.

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

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RH says..... William Prichard, the former Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, had died the previous year. Christie's previous Chief Assistant, H.H. Turner, had succeeded to the chair. Ada Pritchard, his daughter, published Charles Pritchard, D.D., Memoirs of his Life in 1897, which included an account of his theological worky, by the Bishop of Worcester and an account of his astronomical work by Turner. The book shows that Ada spent some time looking through the manuscript records of the Observatory, now held at Cambridge University Library.

Tuesday October 2, 1894

D^r Doberck of Hong Kong Observatory called to see the Astronomer Royal.

Frank Dyson, Chief Assistant

Thursday September 6, 1894

D^r B.A. Gould called.

Frank Dyson, Chief Assistant

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Benjamin Apthorp Gould was an American astronomer who had been in charge of the longitude department of the United States Coast Survey before becoming director of first the Dudley Observatory in Albany, NY, and then the Argentine National Observatory until 1885. At this date he was living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Wednesday August 8, 1894

M^r Fowler came to practise with Transit C, preparation for work of determining longitudes in the settlement of boundary between Dahomey and

Frank Dyson, Chief Assistant

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RH says..... This entry ends with a blank, which Dyson presumably intended to fill in later when he could remember the name of the other end of this west African boundary. The settlement of borders was presumably as a result of the end of the 1892-94 Second Franco-Dahomean War.

Wednesday August 1, 1894

M^r Deslandres & Comte de la Baume Pluvinel came to see the Observatory and M. Deslandres showed some of his photographs of solar chromosphere (faculæ). M. Pluvinel left two positives of the Eclipse of 1893 at Joal.

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

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RH says..... Deslandres and the Comte de la Baume Pluvinel were well-known figures in French astronomy, working on spectroscopy and photography. In previous decades it was felt that there was little place for these novelties in established national observatories such as Greenwich and Paris and alternative sites were set up, including the Solar Physics Observatory in South Kensington (1878) and Meudon Observatory outside Paris (1875). But it's clear that these were areas in which Christie hope to enhance the reputation of Greenwich, as his New Physical Observatory attests.

Monday January 1, 1894

M^r W. E. Plummer came to the Observatory to make observations for Personal Equation in connection with the determination of the longitude of the Liverpool Observatory.

H.H. Turner, Chief Assistant

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Rebekah Higgitt said...
New Year's Day at the Observatory and it's business as usual, with the Chief Assistant hosting the director of a provincial observatory. Finding the exact longitude of Liverpool in order to aid accurate navigation and time determination was the main purposes of Liverpool's Observatory. This work was, therefore, fundamental to the core remit of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, which was founded to aid navigation by mapping the stars in order to find a means of calculating longitude at sea.