(An intriguing look into the architecture and construction...)
An intriguing look into the architecture and construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Full of details, dimensions, and amazing insights into its occult meanings and mysteries.
Charles Piazzi Smyth was an astronomical photographer, also photographed the inside of the Great Pyramid in 1865.
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.
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.
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.