Background
Born at Upnor in Kent, he was the eldest son of Thomas Main. Thomas John Main the mathematician was a younger brother.
Born at Upnor in Kent, he was the eldest son of Thomas Main. Thomas John Main the mathematician was a younger brother.
Robert Main attended school in Portsea, Portsmouth before studying mathematics at Queens" College, Cambridge, where he graduated as sixth wrangler in 1834.
He served for twenty-five years (1835-1860) as First Assistant at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, and published numerous articles, particularly on stellar and planetary motion, stellar parallax, and the dimensions and shapes of the planets. In 1860 he became director of Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford University after the death of Manuel Johnson, and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. Main completed the questionnaire on which Francis Galton based his English Men of Science (1874), and his recorded answers included the following comments:
“I take considerable pains in the investigation of religious matters, one of my amusements being the collection of a considerable theological library, with the books of which I am familiar.”
“I am not aware of any innate taste for science.
My interest in astronomy, especially, was very small indeed until I was appointed.”
The lunar crater Main is named after Robert Main, and there is also a crater on Mars named after him.
Royal Society.
