Editing Edward James Stone

{{Short description|English astronomer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name        = Edward James Stone
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| image       = File:Edward-James-Stone.jpg
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| caption     = Frontispiece from Volume 20 of ''[[The Observatory (journal)|The Observatory]]'' (1897)
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'''Edward James Stone''' [[Royal Society|FRS]] [[Royal Astronomical Society|FRAS]] (28 February 1831{{snd}}6 May 1897) was an [[England|English]] [[astronomer]].<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Stone, Edward James}}</ref>

He was born in [[Notting Hill]], [[London]] to Edward and Sarah Stone. Educated at the [[City of London School]], he obtained a studentship at [[King's College London]], and in 1856 a scholarship at [[Queens' College, Cambridge]], where he graduated as fifth [[Wrangler (University of Cambridge)|wrangler]] in 1859, and was immediately elected fellow of his college.{{sfn|Clerke|1911}}<ref>{{acad|id=STN854EJ|name=Stone, Edward James}}</ref>

The following year he succeeded the Rev. [[Robert Main]] as chief assistant at the [[Royal Greenwich Observatory]], and at once undertook the fundamental task of improving astronomical constants. The most important of these, the [[sun]]'s mean [[parallax]], was at that time subject to considerable uncertainty. He obtained a value for the solar parallax by observations of [[Mars]] in 1860 and 1862. He later refined his estimate by examining observations of the [[transit of Venus]] of 1769. He also studied the [[lunar parallax]], and determined the mass of the [[Moon]], and obtained a value for the constant of [[astronomical nutation|nutation]].{{sfn|Clerke|1911}} He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1868.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=1&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27stone%27%29| title = Library and Archive catalogue|publisher = Royal Society|accessdate = 2012-03-02}}</ref>

He was awarded the [[Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society]] in 1869, and on the resignation of Sir [[Thomas Maclear]] in 1870 he was appointed [[Queen Victoria|Her Majesty's]] astronomer at the [[Cape of Good Hope]]. His first task on taking up this post was the reduction and publication of a large mass of observations left by his predecessor, from a selected portion of which (those made 1856–1860) he compiled a catalogue of 1,159 stars. His principal work was, however, a catalogue of 12,441 stars to the 7th magnitude between the [[South Pole]] and 25°S declination, which was practically finished by the end of 1878 and published in 1881.{{sfn|Clerke|1911}}

Shortly after the death of Main on 9 May 1878, Stone was appointed to succeed him as Radcliffe Observer at Oxford, and he left the Cape on 27 May 1879. At Oxford he extended the Cape observations of stars to the 7th magnitude from 25°S declination to the [[equator]], and collected the results in the Radcliffe catalogue for 1890, which contains the places of 6,424 stars.{{sfn|Clerke|1911}}

Stone observed the [[transit of Venus]] of 1874 at the Cape, and organized the government expeditions for the corresponding event in 1882. He was elected President of the [[Royal Astronomical Society]] (1882–1884), and he was the first to recognize the importance of the old observations accumulated at the Radcliffe Observatory by [[Thomas Hornsby|Hornsby]], [[Abraham Robertson|Robertson]] and [[Stephen Peter Rigaud|Rigaud]]. He successfully observed the total [[solar eclipse]] of 8 August 1896 at [[Novaya Zemlya]], and intended a voyage to [[India]] for the eclipse of 1898, but died suddenly at the [[Radcliffe Observatory]]. The number of his astronomical publications exceeds 150, but his reputation depends mainly on his earlier work at [[Greenwich]] and his two great star catalogues—the Cape catalogue for 1880 and the Radcliffe catalogue for 1890.{{sfn|Clerke|1911}}

He had married Grace Tuckett; they had at least four children.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=1897Obs....20..234T Page 234 |url=https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1897Obs....20..234T/0000234.000.html |access-date=2023-05-04 |journal=The Observatory|bibcode=1897Obs....20..234T |last1=Turner |first1=H. H. |date=1897 |volume=20 |page=234 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=1898MNRAS..58Q.143. Page 143 |url=https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1898MNRAS..58Q.143. |access-date=2023-05-04 |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society|date=1898 |volume=58 |page=143 |bibcode=1898MNRAS..58Q.143. }}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Stone, Edward James|volume=25|page=956|first=Agnes Mary|last=Clerke|authorlink=Agnes Mary Clerke}}

==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Edward James Stone |sopt=t}}
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-abs_connect?db_key=AST&db_key=PRE&qform=AST&arxiv_sel=astro-ph&arxiv_sel=cond-mat&arxiv_sel=cs&arxiv_sel=gr-qc&arxiv_sel=hep-ex&arxiv_sel=hep-lat&arxiv_sel=hep-ph&arxiv_sel=hep-th&arxiv_sel=math&arxiv_sel=math-ph&arxiv_sel=nlin&arxiv_sel=nucl-ex&arxiv_sel=nucl-th&arxiv_sel=physics&arxiv_sel=quant-ph&arxiv_sel=q-bio&sim_query=YES&ned_query=YES&adsobj_query=YES&aut_logic=OR&obj_logic=OR&author=stone%2C+edward&object=&start_mon=&start_year=1850&end_mon=&end_year=1910&ttl_logic=OR&title=&txt_logic=OR&text=&nr_to_return=200&start_nr=1&jou_pick=ALL&ref_stems=&data_and=ALL&group_and=ALL&start_entry_day=&start_entry_mon=&start_entry_year=&end_entry_day=&end_entry_mon=&end_entry_year=&min_score=&sort=SCORE&data_type=SHORT&aut_syn=YES&ttl_syn=YES&txt_syn=YES&aut_wt=1.0&obj_wt=1.0&ttl_wt=0.3&txt_wt=3.0&aut_wgt=YES&obj_wgt=YES&ttl_wgt=YES&txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1 Edward Stone from 1850 to 1910] @ [[Astrophysics Data System]]

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{{EB1911 article with no significant updates}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Edward James}}
[[Category:1831 births]]
[[Category:1897 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Notting Hill]]
[[Category:19th-century English astronomers]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College London]]
[[Category:Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:People educated at the City of London School]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Astronomical Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Burials at St Sepulchre's Cemetery]]