Abstract
DR. S. C. CHANDLER, whose death we recorded with regret last week, was not the least conspicuous in that earnest band of American astronomers whose energy and resource have done so much to advance astronomical science. He began his scientific career in the United States Coast Survey, a school that has trained many brilliant observers, who, in positions of greater independence, have rendered valuable service. Dr. Chandler's claim to a place among the most famous of these rests upon three notable achievements. First, the invention and use of the Almacantar, an instrument in which the small circle perpendicular to the meridian passing through the pole is adopted as a fundamental circle of reference, and gravitational action round an imaginary vertical axis is substituted for the motion of rotation round the pivots of the horizontal axis in the case of a vertical circle. Secondly, for his valuable catalogues of variable stars, in which he systematised the results collected by many observers, thereby encouraging and facilitating further observations. His work in this direction was by no means confined to simple compilation. He was both an indefatigable observer and the fortunate discoverer of many interesting objects of this class, ever directing attention to a branch of astronomy that has proved both suggestive and fructiferous.
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P., W. Dr. S. C. Chandler . Nature 92, 611–612 (1914). https://doi.org/10.1038/092611a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/092611a0