David Gill (astronomer)

Sir David Gill KCB FRS was a Scottish astronomer who is known for measuring astronomical distances, for astrophotography, and for geodesy. He spent much of his career in South Africa.

David Gill was born in Aberdeen and educated at Dollar Academy. He spent two years at Aberdeen University, where he was taught by James Clerk Maxwell, and then joined his fathers clockmaking business. It would seem that Gills interests lay elsewhere since after a few years he sold the business, and then spent time equipping Lord Lindsays private observatory at Dun Echt, Aberdeenshire. In 1874, Gill joined the expedition to Mauritius to observe the transit of Venus. Three years later he went to Ascension Island to observe a near approach of Mars and to calculate its distance. While carrying out these laborious calculations, he was notified of his appointment to the Cape Observatory, which, over the followingyears he was to refurbish completely, turning it into a firstrate institution. Gill was a meticulous observer and had a flair for getting the best out of his instruments. His solar parallax observations with a heliometer and his calculations of distances to the nearer stars, are

Source: Wikipedia