Background
Arthur Matthew Weld Downing was born on April 13, 1850 in Carlow, Ireland. He was the younger son of Arthur Matthew Downing, Esquire, and Mary Weld.
Downing received his early education under Philip Jones at the Nutgrove School, near Rathfarnham, County Dublin.
Downing proceeded in 1866 to Trinity College, Dublin, where he obtained the scholarship in science and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1871, gaining the gold medal of his year in mathematics. He took his Master of Arts degree in 1881.
In 1893 Dublin University granted Downing the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.
Downing was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1896.
Downing was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1875.
Downing was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Astronomer mathematician scientist
Arthur Matthew Weld Downing was born on April 13, 1850 in Carlow, Ireland. He was the younger son of Arthur Matthew Downing, Esquire, and Mary Weld.
Downing received his early education under Philip Jones at the Nutgrove School, near Rathfarnham, County Dublin. He thence proceeded in 1866 to Trinity College, Dublin, where he obtained the scholarship in science and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1871, gaining the gold medal of his year in mathematics. He took his Master of Arts degree in 1881, and in 1893 Dublin University granted him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.
In 1872 Downing was appointed assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, to commence January 17, 1873. There he was placed in charge successively of the library and manuscripts, the time department, and the circle computations. Reduction of the circle, altazimuth, and equatorial observations came to constitute his major responsibility, but he also served as one of four regular observers with the transit circle and altazimuth.
He communicated seventy-five papers to the Royal Astronomical Society, dealing principally with the correction of systematic errors in different star catalogs and with the computation of fundamental motions of the heavenly bodies. Among the papers is a calculation done in collaboration with G. Johnstone Stoney of perturbations suffered by the Leonid meteors, which predicted and explained the relative sparseness of the 1899 shower.
Downing’s next appointment, as superintendent of the Nautical Almanac Office, extended from January 1, 1892, to his statutory retirement on April 13, 1910.
During this period he brought out the Nautical Almanac for the years 1896 to 1912, gradually instituting various improvements therein, including increasing the number of ephemeris stars, introducing Besselian coordinates into the eclipse and occultation lists, and expanding the sections on planetary satellites. He also replaced the solar and planetary tables of Le Verrier with those of Simon Newcomb and George Hill, dropped the obsolete Lunar Distance Tables, and introduced into the Almanac the physical ephemerides of the sun, moon, and planets.
Downing was one of the founders in 1890 of the British Astronomical Association and subsequent nurturer of its early development. He was also a secretary (1889-1892) and vice president (1893-1895) of the Royal Astronomical Society, as well as vice president (1890-1891) and second president (1892-1894) of the British Astronomical Association.
In 1896 Downing officiated in Paris at the important International Conference of Directors of Ephemerides, which sought to attain uniformity in the adoption of astronomical constants. In 1899 he revised Ernst Becker’s Tafeln zur Berechnung der Precession, adapting them to a new value of the precessional constant first derived by Simon Newcomb in response to a formal request presented to him at the Paris meeting. The epoch adopted for the tables was 1910, but they were constructed to be useful for at least ten years before and after that year.
In 1901 Downing compiled a revised version of Taylor’s Madras Catalogue of 11 stars, reduced without a proper motion to the equinox of 1835. His sudden death in 1917, following several years of illness, was from a recurrent heart complaint. Downing was cremated at Golders Green crematorium on December 13, 1917.
Downing was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1875, Fellow of the Royal Society in 1896, and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Downing was married to Ellen Jane Downing, with whom he had one daughter.