Background

Charles Piazzi Smyth was born on January 3, 1819, in Naples, Italy to Captain (later Admiral) William Henry Smyth and his wife Annarella. He was named Piazzi after his godfather, the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi. His father subsequently settled at Bedford and equipped there an observatory, at which Piazzi Smyth received his first lessons in astronomy.

Education

Charles Smyth was educated at Bedford School until the age of sixteen when he became an assistant to Sir Thomas Maclear at the Cape of Good Hope, where he observed Halley's comet and the Great Comet of 1843 and took an active part in the verification and extension of Nicolas Louis de Lacaille's arc of the meridian.

Career

In 1846 Charles Smyth was appointed Astronomer Royal for Scotland, based at the Calton Hill Observatory in Edinburgh, and professor of astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. In 1853, he was responsible for installing the time ball on top of Nelson's Monument in Edinburgh to give a time signal to the ships at Edinburgh's port of Leith.

After his retirement, he made many independent scientific expeditions, during which he photographed his observations. Charles Smyth died in 1900 and was buried at St. John's Church in the village of Sharow near Ripon. A small stone pyramid-shaped monument, topped by a Christian cross, marks his gravesite.

Achievements

• As an astronomer, Charles Smyth did his best work in the spectroscopic field. He gave the first detailed descriptions of the telluric bands in the solar spectrum and introduced the "end-on" mode of viewing vacuum tubes, among other innovations. His book Teneriffe may have been the first publication illustrated by stereo¬scopic photographs.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Great Pyramid: Its Secrets & Mysteries Revealed

    (An intriguing look into the architecture and construction...)

    1978
  • Teneriffe, an Astronomer's Experiment: Or Specialisties of a Residence Above the Clouds

Membership

Charles Piazzi Smyth was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1846 and served on its council for a number of years. In June 1857 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society but resigned in 1874. Charles Piazzi Smyth was conferred with Honorary Membership of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland in 1859.

Connections

In 1855 Charles Smyth married Jessica "Jessie" Duncan (1812-1896), daughter of Thomas Duncan. Jessie Duncan was a geologist who had studied with Alexander Rose in Edinburgh and traveled on geological expeditions to Ireland, France, Switzerland, and Italy.

Father:

William Henry Smyth

Admiral William Henry Smyth (21 January 1788 - 8 September 1865) was a Royal Navy officer, hydrographer, astronomer, and numismatist. He is noted for his involvement in the early history of a number of learned societies, for his hydrographic charts, for his astronomical work, and for a wide range of publications and translations.

Mother:

Eliza Anne Warington

Eliza Anne Warington (3 April 1788 - 9 January 1873) was born in Naples, Italy, the daughter of Thomas Warington, the British Consul. She was known as "Annarella", a Neapolitan diminutive of Anne.

Spouse:

Jessica Smyth

Brother:

Warington Smyth

Brother:

Henry Sir

Sister:

Henrietta Grace Smyth

Henrietta Grace Smyth married Reverend Baden Powell and was the mother of Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell (founder of the World Scouting Movement).

Sister:

Georgiana Rosetta Smyth

Georgiana Rosetta Smyth married William Henry Flower.

Sister:

Ellen Philadelphia Smyth

Ellen Philadelphia Smyth married Captain Henry Toynbee of the HEIC.

godfather:

Giuseppe Piazzi

References

• The Peripatetic Astronomer, The Life of Charles Piazzi Smyth This biography of Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819-1900), the second Astronomer Royal for Scotland, tells of his wide-ranging interests and enthusiasm outside his specialist subject as well as his travels in the cause of astronomy.
  1988