Friday 19 January, 1894

Went to Oxford in evening, returning Monday morning.

H.H. Turner, Chief Assistant

Rebekah Higgitt says.....

Another trip to Oxford for the new Savilian Professor of Astronomy.

Monday Janurary 15, 1894

Took to pieces the level for portable transits which had been damaged by a fall at Cairo; & examined the lever applied by M^r Simms to the micrometer screw.The Astronomer Royal gave notice to 5 computers that they might work from 2-3 every day at the subjects proposed for the examination for 3^rd Class Assistants; but that the proposal for such appointments had not yet been sanctioned by the Treasury.

H.H. Turner, Chief Assistant

Rebekah Higgitt says.....

Care and repair of the Observatory's instruments was an important part of the Chief Assistant's work. Here, Turner is referring to instruments used for the 1874 expedition to observe the transit (crossing) of Venus across the face of the sun. This rare event allows astronomers to make measurement to determine accurately the distance of the sun from the earth. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will be in 2012. After that we will have to wait until 2117. This instrument was one of five identical portable transit telescopes used at five observing stations in 1874, which are now at the National Maritime Museum. The record for another of these five instruments is online here.

Turner also refers to matters of staff education and promotion through an examination similar to those available to other Civil Servants. Further information about Christie's plans for staff reform can be seen here.

Saturday January 13, 1894

Returned to Greenwich

H.H. Turner, Chief Assistant

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Rebekah Higgitt says.....

Turner records here that he returned from his trip to Oxford (see entry for 9th January), which seems strange since we know that he attended the RAS meeting in London on the 12th. It is, of course, quite possible that he stayed in London that evening and, therefore, only returned to Greenwich on this day.

Friday 12 January, 1894

***R.A.S.

H.H. Turner, Chief Assistant

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Rebekah Higgitt says...

Turner today attended a regular meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society in his role as one of the Secretaries. The other Secretary was another ROG employee, E. Walter Maunder. Turner was later, in 1903-1905, to be the Society's President. The proceedings of this day's meeting, as reported in The Observatory, a magazine founded in the 1870s by Christie, can be seen here.

Tuesday January 9, 1894

Went to Oxford for a few days, to attend to various matters.

H.H. Turner, Chief Assistant

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Rebekah Higgitt says.....

Turner had been appointed Savilian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford in 1893. He was, however, still based at Greenwich, finishing up business and training his successor, Frank Dyson, at the start of 1894.

Friday 5 January, 1894

The cold was very severe last night & throughout this day, much snow falling
Very little can be done by M^r Plummer or M^r Dyson.

H.H. Turner, Chief Assistant

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Rebekah Higgitt says.....

Frank Dyson was soon to be Turner's succesor as Chief Assistant. He was already at Greenwich adding the skills of the practical astronomer to his mathematical knowledge gained at Cambridge.

5 January 2009 has also seen low temperatures at the ROG and some snow. However, work for curators, if not astronomers, continues despite the cold and cloudy skies.....

Wednesday January 3, 1894

It was found that the foreman’s Coat & Waistcoat had been taken from the New Buildings during the night. The police investigated the matter & were inclined not to think the act one of burglary.

H.H. Turner, Chief Assistant

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Rebekah Higgitt says.....
Buildings, and the presence of contractors, was a near-constant feature of life at the Observatory in the 1890s.

Tuesday January 2, 1894

In the evening severe weather, with snow set in. The Astrophotographic Dome was left open by the observer, & on the next morning the telescope & inside of dome were covered with snow, which however had not melted.

H.H. Turner, Chief Assistant

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Rebekah Higgitt says.......

Bad weather - a perennial problem for astronomers! This image just misses the astrographic dome, which was built above the building off the right (west). It does, however, show the large dome covering the 28-inch telescope with the smaller dome that housed the Sheepshanks telescope in front.

Tuesday January 2, 1894

Went to M^r Turner’s dinner to M^r & M^rs Ellis

William Chrisite, Astronomer Royal

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Rebekah Higgitt says.....

The Astronomer Royal attended a dinner hosted by his Chief Assistant, Herbert Turner, for the recently-retired William Ellis. Ellis (1828–1916), had first come to the Observatory as a computer aged 13 and, with the exception of a period in 1852-53 stayed there his entire working life. Turner was also about to leave Greenwich.

Monday January 1, 1894

M^r W. E. Plummer came to the Observatory to make observations for Personal Equation in connection with the determination of the longitude of the Liverpool Observatory.

H.H. Turner, Chief Assistant

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Rebekah Higgitt said...
New Year's Day at the Observatory and it's business as usual, with the Chief Assistant hosting the director of a provincial observatory. Finding the exact longitude of Liverpool in order to aid accurate navigation and time determination was the main purposes of Liverpool's Observatory. This work was, therefore, fundamental to the core remit of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, which was founded to aid navigation by mapping the stars in order to find a means of calculating longitude at sea.