James Francis Tennant
On March 6th 1915 James Francis Tenant astronomer
and solider died. He was born in Calcutta to Scottish parents on 10th
January 1929. His military career stared
with the Bengal Engineers. It was clear with his schooling that he was very
good at maths and was part of the team which undertook the great Trigonometric
survey of India. The survey was interrupted due to the Indian mutiny.
After the mutiny he became Director of the Madras observatory,
he observed the solar eclipses of 1868 and 1871 that were seen across the
Indian subcontinent and into Indonesia. Being an expert in photography he used his
knowledge extensively during these eclipses. He also was the first to study the
prominence's with spectroscopes and shown them to be composed mostly of
Hydrogen.
He also observed the Transit of Venus in 1874.
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