RICHARD CHRISTOPHER CARRINGTON

'Richard Christopher Carrington' (May 26 1826 – November 27 1875) was an English amateur astronomer who discovered the differential rotation of the sun by means of sunspot observations in 1863. In 1859 he and Richard Hodgson, another English amateur, independently made the first observations of a solar flare. Because of a simultaneous "crochet" observed in the Kew Gardens magnetometer record and a geomagnetic storm observed the following day, he suspected a solar-terrestrial connection. Even though Carrington did not discover the 11-year sunspot activity cycle, his observations of the sunspot activity after he heard about Heinrich Schwabe observations led to the numbering of the cycles being done with his name. Thus the sunspot maximum of 2002 was of the Carrington Cycle #23. Carrington also determined the elements of the rotation axis of the Sun, based on sunspot motions, and his results remained in use in the 21st century. Carrington rotation is a system of measurement of Solar longitude based on his observations of the low latitude Solar rotation rate.
Carrington made the initial observations leading to the establishment of Spörer's law.
He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1859.

Contents

His writings

External links

His writings

★ ''Catalogue of 3735 Circumpolar Stars'' (1857)

★ ''Observations of the Spots on the Sun from 1853 to 1861'' (1863)

External links

★ Biography at High Altitude Observatory

★ The Sun Kings - information on biography of Carrington

★ solarstorms.org - Extensive history and timeline about Carrington by Astronomer Sten Odenwald