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Lockyer was born at Rugby in Warwickshire. After a conventional schooling suplemented by travel in Switzerland and France, he worked for some years as a civil servant in the British War office.
He settled in Wimbledon in south London after marrying Winifred James. A keen amateur astronomer with a particular interest in the sunThe Sun (also called Sol is the star in our solar system. Planet Earth orbits the Sun. Other bodies that orbit the Sun include other planets, asteroids, meteoroids, comets and dust. Not all objects passing through the solar system have been orbitally capt, Lockyer eventually became director of the solar physics observatory in KensingtonThis article is about the former borough of London. For other uses, see Kensington (disambiguation). Kensington is a former borough of London, now part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The name is still used to designate an area of northwes London.
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 he made drawings of the planetA planet (from the Greek , planetes or "wanderers") is a body of considerable mass that orbits a star and that produces very little or no energy through nuclear fusion. Prior to the 1990s only nine were known (all of them in our own solar system); as of 3 MarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the solar system, named after the Roman god of war (the counterpart of the Greek Ares), on account of its blood red color as viewed in the night sky. Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, both small and odd.
In the 1860sEvents and trends Italian unification under King Victor Emmanuel II. Wars for expansion and national unity continue until the incorporation of the Papal States ( March 17, 1861 September 20, 1870). American Civil War fought between the remaining United St he became fascinated by electromagnetic spectroscopyElectromagnetic spectroscopy a. spectrophotometry is the spectroscopy of electromagnetic spectra which arise out of atoms absorbing and emitting quanta of electromagnetic radiation. Electromagnetic spectroscopy involves the use of a spectrophotometer. as an analytical tool for determining the gas composition of heavenly bodies. Lockyer identified a yellow strip in the spectrum of the sun that conventional scientific opinion of the time held as a known element under extraordinary circumstances. To Lockyer it suggested the existence of a previously unknown element in the sun. He named this element Helium after the Greek word 'Helios' meaning 'sun'. Lockyer's discovery was eventually confirmed in the 1890s.
After his retirement in 1911, Lockyer established an observatory near his home in Salcombe Regis , Devonshire. Originally known as the Hill Observatory, the site was renamed the Norman Lockyer Observatory after his death. For a time the observatory was a part of the University of Exeter, but is now owned by the East Devon District Council, and run by the Norman Lockyer Observatory Society. The Norman Lockyer Chair in Astrophysics at the University of Exeter is currently held by Professor Tim Naylor, who heads a star formation group there.
There is a crater on Mars named after Lockyer.
Lockyer died at his home in Salcombe Regis in 1920.