Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Gill , Sir , David , 1843-1914 , Knight , astronomer
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History
Born Aberdeen 1843; educated Dollar Academy and Marischal College Aberdeen; left university prematurely to take up watchmaking apprenticeship aged 17; took up astronomy 1863; visted Pulkovo Observatory, St Petersburg and Germany, 1873; observed Transit of Venus in Mauritius, 1874-1976; visited Ascension to observe Mars, 1876; Her Majesty's Astronomer at Cape of Good Hope, 1879-1907; pioneered photography in astronomy especially from 1882 resulting in the publication of the magnitudes and positions of more than 455,000 stars; organised geodetic survey of South Africa, largely completed by 1897; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1883; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1890-1914; died 1914.