Edward Walter Maunder | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1851-04-12)12 April 1851 London, England |
| Died | 21 March 1928(1928-03-21) (aged 76) |
| Known for | Maunder Minimum |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Solar astronomy |
| Institutions | Royal Observatory, Greenwich |
Edward Walter Maunder (12 April 1851 – 21 March 1928) was a Britishastronomer. His study ofsunspots and the solar magnetic cycle led to his identification of the period from 1645 to 1715 that is now known as theMaunder Minimum.
Maunder was born in 1851, in London, the youngest child of a minister of theWesleyan Society. He attendedKing's College London but never graduated. He took a job in a London bank to finance his studies.
In 1873 Maunder returned to theRoyal Observatory, taking a position as aspectroscopic assistant. Shortly after, in 1875, he married Edith Hannah Bustin, who gave birth to six children: four sons (one of whom died in infancy) and two daughters.[1] Following the death of Edith in 1888, in 1890 he met Annie Scott Dill Russell (laterAnnie Russell Maunder), a mathematician and astronomer educated atGirton College inCambridge, with whom he collaborated for the remainder of his life. She worked as a "lady computer" at the Observatory from 1890 to 1895.
In 1895 Maunder and Russell married. In 1916 Annie Maunder became one of the first women accepted by theRoyal Astronomical Society.
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Part of Maunder's job atthe Observatory involved photographing and measuring sunspots, and in doing so he observed that thesolar latitudes at which sunspots occur varies in a regular way over the course of the 11-year cycle. After 1891, he was assisted in his work by his wife Annie Maunder. In 1904, he published their results in the form of the butterfly diagram.
After studying the work ofGustav Spörer,[2] who examined old records from the different observatories archives looking for changes of theheliographic latitude of sunspots, Maunder presented a paper on Spörer's conclusions to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1890[3] and analyzed the results to show the presence of a prolonged sunspot minimum in the 17-18th century in a paper published in 1894.[4] The period, recognised initially by Spörer, now bears the nameMaunder minimum.
He travelled extensively for observations going to places such as the West Indies, Lapland, India, Algiers, Mauritius. His last eclipse expedition was to Labrador for theSolar eclipse of 30 August 1905 at the invitation of the Canadian government.[5]
In 1882 Maunder (and some other European astronomers) observed what he called an"auroral beam"; as yet unexplained, it had some similarity in appearance to either anoctilucent cloud or anupper tangent arc.[6] However, Maunder wrote that the phenomenon moved rapidly from horizon to horizon, which would rule out a noctilucent cloud or upper tangent arc. Further, upper tangent arc cannot occur during nighttime when the observation was made. Since he made his observation during highly intense auroral activity, he assumed it was some extraordinary auroral phenomenon, though one he had never observed again before or after.
He observedMars and was a sceptic of the notion ofMartian canals. He conducted visual experiments using marked circular disks which led him to conclude, correctly, that the viewing of canals arose as anoptical illusion. Also he was convinced that there cannot be life "as in our world" on Mars, as there are no temperature-equating winds and too low mean temperatures.Craters onMars andthe Moon were named in his and his wife Annie's honour.
In 1890, Maunder was a driving force in the foundation of theBritish Astronomical Association. Although he had been fellow of theRoyal Astronomical Society since 1875, Maunder wanted an association of astronomers open to every person interested in astronomy, from every class of society, and especially open for women.
Maunder was the first editor of the Journal of theBAA, an office later taken by his wife Annie Maunder. He was also director of its Mars Section 1892–1893, the Star Colour Section 1900–1901, President 1894-1896 and finally Solar Section director 1910–1925. His older brother, Thomas Frid Maunder (1841–1935), was a co-founder and secretary of the BAA for 38 years.
maunder edward.
In 2022English Heritage announced that Annie and Walter Maunder would be commemorated with ablue plaque at their former home inBrockley, London, later that year. The Maunders wroteThe Heavens and their Story while they were living in Brockley.[9]
norman lockyer biography.by Hector Macpherson, London: Gall & Inglis, 1905
