Abstract
THE University of Oxford is conferring the degree of D. Sc., honoris causa, on the Rev. T. E. R. Phillips on February 28. Mr. Phillips's astronomical work began in 1896, while he was curate at Hendford, near Yeovil, where he started systematic work on the planets, especially Jupiter and Mars. In 1916, he was appointed rector of Headley and he set up an observatory in the rectory glebe, where he added an 18-in. reflector (mirror by With) to his other equipment. Mr. Phillips's work on Jupiter has consisted mainly in investigating the surface currents, and the times of the passage of various surface features across the central meridian of the planet are included in this. Other features to which he gave a considerable amount of attention are a Circulating current' in the southern hemisphere of the planet, the Red Spot, and the South Tropical Disturbance. He has recorded more than a dozen distinct surface currents, which are well defined and show minor variations of period ; incidentally, it may be mentioned that he obtained some 30,000 spot transits. The 8-in. refractor loaned by the Royal Astronomical Society was used for double-star measurements and also for determining the light-curves of long-period variables. The results of his harmonic analysis of the light-curves of about eighty stars were given in his presidential address to the British Astronomical Association in 1916.
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Rev. T. E. R. Phillips. Nature 149, 241 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149241c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149241c0