Biography: Nevil Maskelyne

    

    Nevil Maskelyne was born in London on the 6^th of October, 1732. He came from a well off family although his father died when he was twelve and his mother died as well not long after. He was nonetheless able to study at the Westminster School, receiving a strong education both during the academic year and during breaks when he studied writing and math under a tutor. Since the eclipse of 1748, he was fascinated with astronomy and optics and studied math extensively in order to further his understanding of these fields. His next level of education was at Trinity College, Cambridge where he studied natural philosophy, pneumatics, and hydrostatics. In addition to this schooling, Maskelyne was ordained in 1755 and moved back to London to work.

In 1785, Maskelyne married Sophia Rose of Cotterstock and had his only child, Margaret, the same year.

In London, Maskelyne became the unofficial assistant to a Royal Astronomer, James Bradley, and helped him to compute tables of refraction. In 1761, Maskelyne was sent by Bradley to observe the transit of Venus on St. Helena. His trip was unfortunately unsuccessful due to clouds and malfunctioning instruments. Some sources say that he was able to salvage some observational data from the trip and later used it to calculate the Sun's distance with only 1% error. Although it is disputable whether or not he recorded Venus' transit, which is among the rarest of astronomical events, Maskelyne did perfect the lunar distance measuring method created by Tobias Mayer and wrote a book titled The British Mariner's Guide.

Maskelyne's second voyage was to Barbados with the intention of discovering the accuracy of a certain method of longitude measurement. He was entrusted with this mission by the Board of Longitude who also asked him to test a new chair aimed at making astronomical observations at sea easier. At this point in his life, Maskelyne was already a royal astronomer as he replaced Nathaniel Bliss as the 5^th Astronomer Royal after Bliss' death in 1765. From his voyage focused on longitude, Maskelyne gathered enough information to not only present his findings to the board, but also to write a book two years later, Nautical Almanac.

One innovation Maskelyne receives credit for is the creation of “Requisite Tables” which eliminate parallax, used for calculations. Today, Maskelyne's navigational aides are still used, proving his brilliance and phenomenal work in the field of astronomy.

In 1774, Maskelyne attempted to calculate the density of the Earth using the plumb line produced by a mountain in Scotland. His results were close to the accepted standard today, a remarkable feat for those times.

In addition to his work regarding longitude, Maskelyne studied the latitude measurements made by Mason and Dixon in Maryland and Pennsylvania and the latitude line in Greenwich. He used triangulation to calculate these values himself and was included in the book Elements of Astronomy by Samuel Vince for his work.

Some of Maskelyne's lesser known works include A Proposal for Discovering the Annual Parallax of Sirius and his work involving time. The proposal was his first published work and he was able to divide the measurement of time into tenths pf a second for the first time. He has been portrayed in a television episode based on a book about him titled Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. Also, he has had a lunar crater and an island in Malekule named after him to commemorate his advancements.

Maskelyne died at the age of 79 in 1811. This was quite a long life for someone of this time and his daughter only outlived him by six years. His colleagues said he was always friendly and like a brother to all. Although he did not leave behind any instruments to the Royal Observatory, he still left a legacy of detailed calculations and very important publications which would be used for many years to come.