"This new stone plaque was installed in 2019 to mark 400 years since the foundation in 1619 of the positions of the Savilian Professor of Astronomy and the Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford (planning application 19/02217/LBC)
It replaces the wooden plaque (right) which used to be fixed to the wall of No. 7.
As well as a mathematician, Edmond Halley was an astronomer, geophysicist, meteorologist, and physicist, and a friend of Isaac Newton. In 1682 he observed the comet that was named after him, and in 1684 computed its orbit.
Edmund Halley was elected Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford in January 1703/4. He is believed to have moved into this house as a subtenant under the lease of John Wallis two months later, and an observatory was built for him here in about 1705.
In 1713 Halley was also appointed Secretary of the Royal Society, and in 1720 Royal Astronomer at Greenwich Observatory.
When the Radcliffe Observatory was built in the 1770s, the post of Radcliffe Observer was coupled to the astronomy professorship, and a house was provided at the Observatory for the incumbent, making this house available for general letting.
Halley's former home is still a New College house (below): the earlier wooden plaque to Halley that has been replaced by a plaque on the gate pillar can be seen to the left of the front door. It is jointly Grade II listed with No. 6 to the right (List Entry No. 1369401). The restored rectangular structure on the roof is believed to have been used by Halley as an observatory."
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Halley's Comet
Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–76 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and the only naked-eye comet that might appear twice in a human lifetime. Halley last appeared in the inner parts of the Solar System in 1986 and will next appear in mid-2061.
Halley's returns to the inner Solar System have been observed and recorded by astronomers since at least 240 BC. Clear records of the comet's appearances were made by Chinese, Babylonian, and medieval European chroniclers, but, at those times, were not recognized as reappearances of the same object. The comet's periodicity was first determined in 1705 by English astronomer Edmond Halley, after whom it is now named.
During its 1986 apparition, Halley's Comet became the first comet to be observed in detail by spacecraft, providing the first observational data on the structure of a comet nucleus and the mechanism of coma and tail formation. These observations supported a number of longstanding hypotheses about comet construction, particularly Fred Whipple's "dirty snowball" model, which correctly predicted that Halley would be composed of a mixture of volatile ices—such as water, carbon dioxide, and ammonia—and dust. The missions also provided data that substantially reformed and reconfigured these ideas; for instance, it is now understood that the surface of Halley is largely composed of dusty, non-volatile materials, and that only a small portion of it is icy."
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2688 Halley
Discovered 1982-Apr-25 by Bowell, E. at Flagstaff (AM)
Discovered at the Anderson Mesa station, which is operated by the Lowell Observatory.
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Lunar Crater Halley
Halley is a lunar impact crater that is intruding into the southern wall of the walled plain Hipparchus. Its diameter is 35 km. The crater is named after the English astronomer Edmond Halley. On the 1645 map by Michael van Langren, the crater is called Gansii, for the gansa (a kind of wild swan) of Francis Godwin's The Man in the Moone. To the southwest of Halley is the large crater Albategnius, and due east lies the slightly smaller Hind.
The rim of Halley is somewhat worn, and a scar in the lunar surface passes through the western rim, forming a valley that runs to the south-southeast, near the rim of Albategnius. The interior floor of Halley is relatively flat.
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Mars Crater Halley
"Halley Crater is an impact crater in the Argyre quadrangle of Mars, located at 48.7°S latitude and 59.3°W longitude. Halley is located on the western edge of the Argyre impact basin.[1] It is 84.5 km in diameter. It was named after British astronomer Edmond Halley, and the name was approved in 1973."
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