Abstract
PROF. S. W. BURNHAM, whose death is announced, was born on December 12, 1838, at Thatford, Vermont, U.S.A. His early profession was that of journalist and stenographer at Chicago. Burnham was, however, soon filled with a zeal for astronomical research, in particular double-star observation, in which department he was one of the greatest and most successful workers of all time. In 1870 he became the possessor of an excellent 6-in. refractor by Alvan Clark. In spite of his arduous professional work, he observed with this instrument nightly "till daylight drove him to bed."He discovered 451 pairs with it, nearly all difficult, and some of special interest, being faint, close companions of naked-eye stars (for example, v Scorpii, mags. 4 and 8, Burnham had a marvellously acute dist 0.3") Burnham had a marvellously acute eye, some of the pairs discovered with the 6-in. taxing the powers of the largest telescopes to separate. His next work was done with the 18J-in. refractor of the Dearborn Observatory, Chicago, from 1877 to 1879; with this he discovered 413 pairs, many of which are recorded in vol. xliv. of Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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C., A. Prof. S. W. Burnham. Nature 107, 212–213 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107212a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107212a0