Background
Edward Walter Maunder was born on April 12, 1851, in London, United Kingdom to the family of Reverend George Maunder, a minister of the Wesleyan Society and was the youngest son.
Frognal, Hampstead, London NW3 6XH, United Kingdom
Maunder attended the school attached to University College, London.
Edward Walter Maunder was a fellow Royal Astronomical Society.
Edward Walter Maunder was a founder British Astronomical Association.
(In this entertaining and highly illustrated history of th...)
In this entertaining and highly illustrated history of the Royal Observatory, first published in 1900, astronomer Edward Walter Maunder (1851-1928) explores the departments of the institution and the lives of its Astronomers Royal, illuminating the fabulous and often overlooked advances made there since its founding in the seventeenth century.
https://www.amazon.com/Royal-Observatory-Greenwich-Glance-History-ebook/dp/B018PLTAEW/?tag=2022091-20
1900
(There was a time when men knew nothing of astronomy; like...)
There was a time when men knew nothing of astronomy; like every other science, it began from zero. But it is not possible to suppose that such a state of things lasted long, we know that there was a time when men had noticed that there were two great lights in the sky - a greater light that shone by day, a lesser light that shone by night - and there were the stars also. And this, the earliest observation of primitive astronomy, is preserved for us, expressed in the simplest possible language, in the first chapter of the first book of the sacred writings handed down to us by the Hebrews.
https://www.amazon.com/Science-Stars-Edward-Walter-Maunder-ebook/dp/B019D7A6QS/?tag=2022091-20
1912
(The stories in the four-volume Classic Moon Stories serie...)
The stories in the four-volume Classic Moon Stories series continue the pattern established in the two previous anthologies published by AfterMath: the seven volumes of Classic Mars Stories and the three volumes of Classic Venus Stories. Volume 1 of the Classic Moon Stories series contains the following complete works: “Moon Lore,” by Timothy Harley “Are the Planets Inhabited?,” by E. Walter Maunder “Trips to the Moon,” by Lucian of Samosata “The Discovery of a World in the Moone,” by Michael Sparl and Edward Forrest “Moon Lore” describes many moon-related religious beliefs and superstitions. “Are the Planets Inhabited?” is somewhat pedantic speculation that many more recent advances in scientific knowledge have shown to be impossible. “Trips to the Moon” is the earliest known work to describe a visit to the Moon. “The Discovery of a World in the Moone” is, in the words of the authors, “a discourse Tending to prove that ’tis probable there may be another habitable World in that Planet.
https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Moon-Stories-Vol-1-ebook/dp/B00EKUWENW/?tag=2022091-20
2013
Edward Walter Maunder was born on April 12, 1851, in London, United Kingdom to the family of Reverend George Maunder, a minister of the Wesleyan Society and was the youngest son.
Maunder attended the school attached to University College, London, and took some additional courses at King’s College there. He then worked briefly in a London bank before taking the first examination ever given by the British Civil Service Commission for the post of photographic and spectroscopic assistant in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
By appointing Maunder to this new post in 1873, the observatory - which had been concerned since its founding with positional astronomy - made a formal commitment to astrophysical observations. Maunder worked at Greenwich for forty years, largely under the direction of W. H. M. Christie; the primary task assigned him was the photographic observation of the sun and the subsequent measurement of sunspots.
When the Greenwich record of sunspots was begun on 17 April 1874, the periodicity, equatorial drift, and variation of rotation with the latitude of sunspots had already been established. In addition to verifying these facts, Maunder’s daily photographs - taken first on wet plates, later on dry - made possible a search for other regularities. To this end, Maunder tabulated various sunspot features, such as number, area, changes, position, and motion. From these data, he drew conclusions concerning the relation between rotation period and latitude of sunspots, the position of the solar axis of rotation, the correlation between solar rotation and terrestrial magnetic disturbances, the variation in time of the mean spotted area of the sun, and the latitudinal distribution of sunspot centers. With a spectroscope attached to the observatory’s great equatorial, Maunder observed solar prominences, the radial motion of stars, and the spectra of planets, comets, novae, and nebulae. The results were undistinguished.
Maunder traveled outside England to observe six solar eclipses. As a member of the official British party, Maunder photographed the corona from Carriacou in the West Indies in 1886, and from Mauritius in 1901. In 1905 he went to Canada as a guest of the Canadian government. The other three expeditions, under the auspices of the British Astronomical Association, were organized for the most part by Maunder himself. In 1896 they went to Vadsö, Norway, in 1898 to India, and in 1900 to Algeria. In India, Maunder and his wife made separate observations: she, with instruments of her own devising, photographed a coronal streamer extending to six solar radii - the longest ever photographed.
The literary output of Maunder and his wife was prodigious. The results of their astronomical observations were communicated primarily to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Journal of the British Astronomical Association. For many years both Nature and Knowledge contained frequent articles by the Maunders on popular astronomy, astronomical researches, and the history of astronomy - notably astronomical records in the Bible.
(In this entertaining and highly illustrated history of th...)
1900(The stories in the four-volume Classic Moon Stories serie...)
2013(There was a time when men knew nothing of astronomy; like...)
1912After his election as a fellow in 1875, Maunder took an active part in the affairs of the Royal Astronomical Society (R.A.S.), serving as a council member for many years and secretary from 1892 to 1897. Despite its many advantages, this society did not satisfy the needs of many British astronomers. Therefore, in 1890, largely through the efforts of Maunder and his brother Thomas Frid Maunder, the British Astronomical Association was founded. Its purposes were twofold: “To meet the wished and needs of those who find the subscription of the R.A.S. too high or its papers too advanced, or who are, in the case of ladies, practically excluded from becoming Fellows” and “to afford a means of direction and organization in the work of observation to amateur astronomers.” For the rest of his life, Maunder supported this popular organization, serving as president in 1894-1896 and as a director at various times of the Mars section, the solar section, and the colored star section. He edited the association’s Journal for about ten years; during his presidency, this job was undertaken by his wife. Previously, from 1881 to 1887, he had edited Observatory, the journal founded by Christie.
Of Maunder’s first wife, who died in 1888 little is known. Her name was Edith Hannah Bustin and she gave birth to six children, 3 sons, 2 daughters and a son who died in infancy. His second wife, whom he married in 1895, was Annie S. D. Russell, a competent and active astronomer. In 1889 she graduated from Girton College, Cambridge, as Senior Optime in the Mathematical Tripos, thus earning the highest mathematical honor then available to women. In 1891 she was appointed “lady computer” at Greenwich, charged with examining and measuring the sunspot photographs taken by Maunder. Thenceforth, she worked closely with Maunder.