Background
William Cranch Bond was born in Falmouth, Maine (near Portland) on September 9, 1789.
William Cranch Bond was born in Falmouth, Maine (near Portland) on September 9, 1789.
William Cranch Bond received a Master of Arts degree from Harvard, 1842.
The William Bond clock shop remained in existence at 9 Park Street in Boston until the 1970s. In 1806, when he was seventeen years old, Bond saw a solar eclipse. Soon thereafter, he became an avid amateur astronomer.
When he built his first house, Bond made its parlor an observatory, complete with an opening in the ceiling out of which his telescope could view the sky.
In 1815, Bond traveled to Europe, commissioned by Harvard University to gather information on European observatories. In 1839, Bond was allowed to move his personal astronomical equipment to Harvard and serve as its (unpaid) "Astronomical Observer to the University." Later, in 1843, a sun-grazing comet aroused enough public interest in astronomy that Harvard was able to raise $25,730 towards the construction of a state-of-the-art observatory.
Bond designed the building and the observing chair (both of which are still in working order today), and Harvard bought a fifteen-inch German-built refracting telescope, equal in size to the largest in the world at the time. The telescope was first put to use on June 24, 1847, when it was pointed at the moon.
Independently discovered the Great Comet of 1811
Working with John Adams Whipple, the Bonds pioneered astrophotography, taking the first daguerreotype image of a star (Vega, in 1850) ever taken from America.
In all, the three took between 200 and 300 photos of celestial objects. A number of celestial objects have been named in Bond"s honor. A few of them include:
The crater West. Bond on the Moon is named after him.
A region on Hyperion is called the "Bond-Lassell Dorsum".
William Cranch Bond was married to Selina Cranch. His second marriage was to Mary Roope Cranch.