John Goodricke was deaf and probably unable to speak, he moved to York in 1781 when he was just 17 years old, it was here that on November 16th 1781 that he began his astronomical diary.
He would go on to explain why the star Algol in the constellation of Perseus varies in brightness, he also discovered the variable star Beta Lyra and the variable star Delta Cepheus, today Cepheid variables are used to work out the distances to other galaxies. He was one of the fathers of 'Variable Star Astronomy'
Tragically John Goodricke would die in 1786 before his 22nd birthday, probably from pneumonia.
No comments:
Post a Comment