BLUE PLAQUE FOR LOCAL WATCHER OF THE SKIES

The Institute of Physics in Scotland (Iops) has honoured the achievements of a well-to-do amateur astronomer, Thomas David Anderson, with a blue plaque outside his former home at 21 East Claremont Street.

A ceremony was conducted at the address yesterday.

Anderson was born at 28 Saxe-Coburg Place on 6 February 1853. Five years later, his father – a wealthy director of the George Street upholsterers Robert Grieve & Co – took him to the front door to observe Donati’s comet in the south-western sky: ‘As he pointed out the great marvel above the top of the tree that stood before our house in Saxe-Coburg Place, he said to me that however long I might live I should never again behold anything so wonderful. So far as comets are concerned, he was right, I fancy.’

Around 1866, Anderson was instructing himself about the skies from books. ‘I had now a pleasant and as I soon found not at all a difficult occupation in identifying the various constellations and in learning the names and letters of the chief stars in them; and my studies of the firmament were all the easier as the house in East Claremont Street where I then lived ... was in those days splendidly situated for star-gazing, there being wide stretches of vacant ground both to the front and to the back of it.’

Graduating in the Classics from Edinburgh University in 1874, he went on to study at the Scottish Congregational College with the intention of eventually entering the Ministry. His shyness discouraged him from so public a career, as may have the not-altogether-useful subject of his doctoral thesis: Latin conjunctions. Instead, he concentrated on occasional sermon writing and star gazing. Much to his own surprise, one evening in late January 1892, he threw open a window at 21 East Claremont Street, stuck a pocket telescope to his eye, and spotted a previously unknown exploding star – Nova Aurigae – at the end of it.

The discovery brought this ‘most assiduous watcher of the skies’ worldwide fame, which he ignored by remaining at 21 East Claremont Street and continuing to search for new novas. At last, on 22 February 1901, at about 2.40am, he was rewarded. A professional astronomer, H.H. Turner, later recalled Anderson’s account of the discovery. Anderson was about to retire to rest for the night when:

... throwing a last glance upward, he suddenly saw a brilliant star in the constellation Perseus. His first feeling was actually one of disappointment, for he felt sure that this object must have been there for some time past without his knowing of it, and he grudged the time lost when he might have been regarding it. More in a spirit of complaint than enquiry, he made his way next day to the Royal Observatory at Edinburgh to hear what they had to say about it, though he found it difficult to approach the subject. He first talked about the weather and the crops and similar topics of general interest; and only after some time dared he venture a casual reference to the 'new portent in the heavens.' Seeing his interlocutor look somewhat blank, he ventured a little further and made a direct reference to the new star in Perseus; and then found to his astonishment, as also to his great delight, that he was the first to bring news of it.

Awards and honours followed in abundance, something which the retiring Anderson found rather a burden. He remained at No 21 with his two sisters until spring 1904, moving because of the recent unwelcome arrival of electric light on East Claremont Street. They settled first near Haddington and then darkest Innerwick.

Further important discoveries followed, particularly in 1918 and 1923, which will naturally be of no interest to Spurtle readers since they were made outwith Broughton.  (Those wishing to know more should  link to the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh, which article has formed the basis of this one.)

By the time of his death on 31 March 1932, Anderson had discovered a total of 3 temporary and 53 variable stars, many of which are still there.

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Starlight, limelight, electric light, no light ... in that order: http://www.broughtonspurtle.org.uk/news/blue-plaque-local-watcher-skies … #history #astronomy

@theSpurtle awesome!

Brian Ford ‏@bfford  6 hours ago

@theSpurtle @auntyemily never knew the history at 21 East Claremont Street and I lived there on the 2nd floor