Home > Asaph Hall

Hall was born in Goshen, Connecticut. Apprenticed to a carpenter at 16, he later enrolled at the Central College in McGrawville, New York. In 1856 he married Angeline Stickney.

In 1856, he took a job at the Harvard College ObservatoryThe Harvard College Observatory (or HCO) is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Department of Astronomy of Harvard. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was founded in 183 in Cambridge, Massachusetts2000 Cambridge is a city in the greater Boston area in Massachusetts, United States. It was named in honor of Cambridge, England, the town where its founding fathers had studied ( Cambridge University). Cambridge is perhaps most famous for three things: H, and turned out to be an expert computer of orbits. Hall became assistant astronomer at the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC in 1862Events January-March January 10 End of term for John Gately Downey, 7th Governor of California. He is succeeded by Amasa Leland Stanford. January 30 The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched. February 1 Julia Ward Howe's " Battle Hy, and within a year of his arrival he was made professor.

In 1875Events January 12 Kwang-su becomes emperor of China. February 27 Newton Booth, 11th Governor of California resigns, having been elected Senator. Lieutenant Governor of California Romualdo Pacheco becomes acting Governor. He is later replaced by elected go Hall was given responsibility for a 66-cm/26-in telescope, the largest refractor in the world at the time. He noticed a white spot on Saturn which he used as a marker to ascertain the planet's rotational period. In 18841884 is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar). Events January 4 The Fabian Society is founded in London. February 1 Edition one of the Oxford English Dictionary is published. March 13 The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins (ends on Janu, he showed that the position of the elliptical orbit of Saturn's moon, HyperionHyperion ("hy PEER ee un") is a moon of Saturn discovered by William Cranch Bond, George Phillips Bond and William Lassell in 1848. It is named after Hyperion, a Titan in Greek mythology. It is also designated Saturn VII. Hyperion's discovery came not too, was retrograding by about 20° per year. Hall also investigated stellar parallaxes and the positions of the stars in the Pleiades cluster.

He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1879.