John Louis Emil Dreyer (13 February 1852 – 14 September 1926), alsoJohan Ludvig Emil Dreyer, was aDanish astronomer who spent most of his career working in Ireland. He spent the last decade of his life inOxford, England.[1][2][3][4]
Dreyer was born inCopenhagen. His father, Lieutenant General John Christopher Dreyer,[5] was the Danish Minister for War and the Navy. When he was 14 he became interested in astronomy and regularly visitedHans Schjellerup at the Copenhagen observatory.[4] He was educated in Copenhagen, taking an MA in 1872. While the same university later awarded him a PhD, in 1874.[6] But in 1874, at the age of 22, he went toParsonstown,Ireland. There he worked as the assistant ofLord Rosse (the son and successor of theLord Rosse who built theLeviathan of Parsonstown telescope).
During 1878 he moved toDunsink, the site of the Trinity College Observatory of Dublin University to work forRobert Stawell Ball. In 1882 he relocated again, this time toArmagh Observatory, where he served as Director until his retirement in 1916. In 1885 he became a British citizen. In 1916 he and his wife Kate moved toOxford where Dreyer worked on editing the works ofTycho Brahe.
He won theGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1916 and served as the society's president from 1923 until 1925. He died on 14 September 1926 in Oxford, where he is buried inWolvercote Cemetery.
Acrater on thefar side of the Moon is named after him.
Dreyer compiled theNew General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, basing it onWilliam Herschel'sCatalogue of Nebulae, as well as two supplementaryIndex Catalogues. The NGC and IC catalogue designations are still widely used.
Dreyer was also a historian of astronomy. In 1890 he published a biography of Danish astronomerTycho Brahe, and in his later years he edited Tycho's publications and unpublished correspondence. These were published in a 15-volume edition,Opera Omnia, the last volume of which was published after his death.[4]
His bookHistory of the Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler (1905), is currently printed with the titleA History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler.[7]
He co-edited the first official history of theRoyal Astronomical Society along withHerbert Hall Turner,History of the Royal Astronomical Society 1820–1920 (1923, reprinted 1987).[8]
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