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{{Short description|British astronomer}}{{other people||William Huggins (disambiguation)}}{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}

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Cornhill, London>Cornhill, Middlesex, England1910122df=y}}Tulse Hill, County of London>London, England| fields = Astronomy| doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = Astronomical spectroscopyRoyal Medal (1866)Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society {{small>(1867)}}Lalande Prize (1870)Rumford Medal (1880)Valz Prize (1882)Janssen Medal (French Academy of Sciences) (1888) Copley Medal (1898)Actonian Prize {{small>(1900)}}Henry Draper Medal (1901)Bruce Medal (1904)| signature = | signature_alt = | footnotes = | spouse = Margaret Lindsay Hugginscountry=GBRKCBsize=100%}}}} Sir William Huggins {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OM|KCB|FRS}} (7 February 1824 – 12 May 1910) was a British astronomer best known for his pioneering work in astronomical spectroscopy together with his wife, Margaret.DNB12, Henry Park Hollis, Huggins, William,

Biography

(File:Huggins William 1910.jpg|thumb|William Huggins (1910))William Huggins was born at Cornhill, Middlesex, in 1824. In 1875, he married Margaret Lindsay, daughter of John Murray of Dublin, who also had an interest in astronomy and scientific research.{{citation }} She encouraged her husband’s photography and helped to put their research on a systematic footing.{{cn|date=October 2021}}Huggins built a private observatory at 90 Upper Tulse Hill, London, from where he and his wife carried out extensive observations of the spectral emission lines and absorption lines of various celestial objects.{{cn|date=October 2021}}On 29 August 1864, Huggins was the first to take the spectrum of a planetary nebula when he analysed NGC 6543.JOURNAL, Huggins, William, Miller, W.A., On the spectra of some of the nebulae, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1864, 154, 437–444,babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000049721522;view=1up;seq=503, 10.1098/rstl.1864.0013, free, 1864RSPT..154..437H, See p. 438, “No. 4373”.{{citation }} He was also the first to distinguish between nebulae and galaxies by showing that some (like the Orion Nebula) had pure emission spectra characteristic of gas, while others like the Andromeda Galaxy had the spectral characteristics of stars.{{cn|date=October 2021}} Huggins was assisted in the analysis of spectra by his neighbor, the chemist William Allen Miller. Huggins was also the first to adopt dry plate photography in imaging astronomical objects.With observations of Sirius showing a redshift in 1868, Huggins hypothesized that a radial velocity of the star could be computed.JOURNAL, Huggins, W., Further observations on the spectra of some of the stars and nebulae, with an attempt to determine therefrom whether these bodies are moving towards or from the Earth, also observations on the spectra of the Sun and of Comet II, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1868, 158, 529–564, 10.1098/rstl.1868.0022, 1868RSPT..158..529H, Huggins won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1867, jointly with William Allen Miller. He later served as President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1876 to 1878, and received the Gold Medal again (this time alone) in 1885. He served as an officer of the Royal Astronomical Society for a total of 37 years, more than any other person.BOOK, Dreyer, John L. E., Turner, Herbert H., History of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1820–1920, Royal Astronomical Society, 1, 1923, London, 250, Huggins was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1865, was awarded their Royal Medal (1866), Rumford Medal (1880) and Copley Medal (1898) and delivered their Bakerian Lecture in 1885. He then served as President of the Royal Society from 1900 to 1905. For example, his Presidential Address in 1904 praised the fallen Fellows and distributed the prizes of that year.Wm Huggins (30 November 1904) Huggins Presidential Address, link from Internet ArchiveHe died at his home in Tulse Hill, London, after an operation for a hernia in 1910 and was buried at Golders Green Crematorium.

Telescopes

In 1856 Huggins acquired a 5-inch diameter aperture telescope by Dollond.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=0GGtNxUpeR4C&q=William+Huggins+telescopes+18+inch+reflector&pg=PA10, Report of the National Academy of Sciences for the Year ..., Sciences (U.S.), National Academy of, 1902, U.S. Government Printing Office, en, In 1858 an 8-inch telescope by Clark was added.JOURNAL, 1913ApJ....37..145H Page 145, 1913ApJ....37..145H, Hale, George E., The Astrophysical Journal, 1913, 37, 145, 10.1086/141983, free, These were both refracting telescopes. They had glass objectives.In 1871 Huggins acquired an {{convert|18|in|m|adj=on}} speculum reflecting telescope from the Grubb Telescope Company.WEB, Nall, Joshua, 18-inch telescope primary mirror, speculum, from William Huggins’ Tulse Hill Observatory, by Howard Grubb, Irish, 1871,collections.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/objects/13295/, Whipple Museum, University of Cambridge, 27 March 2023,

Honours and awards

Honours

• Elected an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1892.WEB, 2023-02-09, William Huggins {{!, American Academy of Arts and Sciences |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/william-huggins |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=www.amacad.org |language=en}}
• Elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society in 1895.WEB, APS Member History,search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=William+Huggins&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced, 2024-03-14, search.amphilsoc.org,
• Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 1897 Diamond Jubilee Honours list on 22 June 1897.JOURNAL, HUGGINS, Sir Wm., K.C.B. cr. 1897, Who’s Who, 1907, 59, 889–890,books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA889, Addison, Henry Robert, Lawson, William John, Oakes, Charles Henry, Sladen, Douglas Brooke Wheelton,
• Huggins was among the original recipients of the Order of Merit (OM) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902,NEWSPAPER THE TIMES, The Coronation Honours, 26 June 1902, 5, 36804, and received the order from King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 8 August 1902.NEWSPAPER THE TIMES, Court Circular, 9 August 1902, 6, 36842, {{London Gazette|issue=27470|page=5679|date=2 September 1902|}}
• Elected a International Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1904.WEB, William Huggins,www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/20001312.html, 2024-03-14, www.nasonline.org,

Awards

• Royal Medal (1866)
• Lalande Prize (1870)
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (jointly with William Allen Miller in 1867, solo in 1885)
• Rumford Medal (1880)
• Valz Prize (1882)JOURNAL, The Valz Prize, Popular Astronomy, 21, 384, 1913,books.google.com/books?id=hr0zAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA384,
• Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1883)
• Janssen Medal (1888)
• Copley Medal (1898)
• Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences (1901)WEB, Henry Draper Medal,www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/henry-draper-medal.html, National Academy of Sciences, 19 February 2011,
• Bruce Medal (1904)

Named after him

• Huggins (lunar crater)
• Huggins (Martian crater)
• Asteroid 2635 Huggins

Publications

File:William huggins00.jpg|thumb|right|Caricature of Huggins by Leslie Ward in Vanity Fair]]

• 1870: Spectrum analysis in its application to the heavenly bodies. Manchester, (Science lectures for the work

people; series 2, no. 3)

• 1872: (editor) Spectrum analysis in its application to terrestrial substances and the physical constitution of heavenly bodies by H. Schellen, translated by Jane and Caroline Lassell, link from HathiTrust.
• 1899: (with Lady Huggins): An Atlas of Representative Stellar Spectra from lambda4870 to lambda3300, together with a discussion of the evolution order of the stars, and the interpretation of their spectra; preceded by a short history of the observatory. London, (Publications of Sir William Huggins’s Observatory; v. 1)
• 1906: The Royal Society, or, Science in the state and in the schools. London.
• 1909: The Scientific Papers of Sir William Huggins; edited by Sir William and Lady Huggins. London, (Publications of Sir William Huggins’s Observatory; v. 2)

See also

• Planetary nebulaObservations
• Timeline of knowledge about the interstellar and intergalactic medium
• List of presidents of the Royal Society

References

{{reflist}}

External links

{{Commons category|William Huggins}}{{wikisource author}}

• Huggins, Sir William (1824–1910) Barbara J. Becker, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004 (subscription required)
• EB1911, Huggins, Sir William, 13, Clerke, Agnes Mary, Agnes Mary Clerke, 856–857, 1,
• Audio description of Huggins’ work
• Eclecticism, Opportunism, and the Evolution of a New Research Agenda: William and Margaret Huggins and the Origins of Astrophysics Barbara J. Becker
• William Wallace Campbell Sir William Huggins, K.C.B.,O.M., Astronomical Society of the Pacific link from Internet Archive.

{{Copley Medallists 1851-1900}}{{Royal Society presidents 1900s}}{{Authority control}}