3-066-158 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. W. H. M. Christie, M.A., F.R.S. the new Astronomer Royal, 1881. Engraving from a photograph by the London Stereoscopic Company. 'In 1870, Mr. William Henry Mahony Christie was appointed Chief Assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich Park; and he has, during the past ten years, done special good service by contriving and introducing several valuable improvements in the scientific apparatus there in use; a new form of spectroscope, an instrument for determining the colours and brightness of the stars, a recording micrometer, and a polarising solar eye-piece, are to be mentioned as his inventions...The new Astronomer Royal has directed particular attention, both to spectroscopy and to photography, as a means of recording the observations....he is author of the "Manual of Elementary Astronomy," published in 1875 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.