February 21st 1900 Death of Charles Piazzi Smyth
Charles Piazzi Smyth was born in 1819 he became Astronomer Royal for Scotland from 1846-1888.
Apart from his astronomical work he was very interested in studying the weather and the Pyramids in Egypt.
On This Day (2)
February 21st 1901 Discovery of Nova Perseus 1901 by Thomas Anderson
Nova Perseus 1901 or GK Perseus was discovered by Scottish astronomer Thomas Anderson. It reached magnitude 0.2, since discovery it has made a number of outbursts suggesting it is more like a dwarf nova rather than a classical nova.
Surrounding the nova is the Firework Nebula discovered in 1902 consisting of an expanding cloud of gas.
On This Day (3)
February 21st 1938 Death of George Ellery Hale
George Ellery hale was an astrophysicist and studied stellar spectra and sunspots. Hale supervised the construction of the Mount Palomar observatory in California with the then biggest telescope in the world the 200 inch reflector.
Audience under the 200 inch telescope
He never lived to see the observatory operation, but when declared operational in 1948 the 200 inch telescope was named in his honor The Hale Reflector
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