Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin

Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin (February 6, 1865 – September 20, 1939) was a Irish-born, British astronomer of Huguenot descent. He was born in Cushendun, County Antrim,[1] and educated in England at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge.[2] He worked at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and went on several solar eclipse expeditions. He was president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1929 to 1931.

An expert on comets, his calculation of orbits of what were then called Comet Forbes 1928 III, Comet Coggia-Winnecke 1873 VII, and Comet Pons 1818 II, in 1929, showed that these comets were one and the same periodic comet. The comet thus received the rather unwieldy name "Comet Pons-Coggia-Winnecke-Forbes". In 1948, he was posthumously honored when the comet was renamed after him alone (today, in modern nomenclature, it is designated 27P/Crommelin). This is similar to the case of Comet Encke, where the periodic comet is named after the person determining the orbit rather than the possibly-multiple discoverers and re-discoverers at each apparition.

Named after Crommelin

See also

References

  1. ^ A. J. Meadows, "Crommelin, Andrew Claude de la Cherois (1865–1939)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2007, accessed 13 May 2011.
  2. ^ Crommelin, Andrew Claude [D'Elacherois or De La Cherois] in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.