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John Grigg, and the Genesis of Cometary Astronomy in New Zealand

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Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 422))

Abstract

John Grigg was New Zealand’s leading amateur astronomer during the first decade of the twentieth century, and independently discovered four comets, three of which now bear his name. In addition, he pioneered astronomical photography in New Zealand, and also applied this technology to comets. Grigg is best remembered internationally for his discovery of Comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup, which has one of the shortest periods of any known comet. In this chapter Grigg’s cometary work is discussed, along with other New Zealand astronomers who also discovered comets.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Although Hughes (1991), Mackrell (1985: 75–79), McIntosh (1958, 1970); Orchiston (1985b, 1998) and Rumsey (1974) all provide brief accounts of Grigg, the first detailed study of his contribution to cometary astronomy was published by Orchiston in 1993. This chapter is an up-dated version of that paper.

  2. 2.

    Loomis’ 1500 catalogue is the “Catalogue of 1500 Stars” in Loomis (1861: 400–459). Proctor’s “Atlas” was presumably one of the various editions produced of A Star Atlas for the Library, The School, and The Observatory, London, Longmans and Green (see Luther 1989: 198).

  3. 3.

    This account appears on the bottom of an untitled sheet of paper in the ‘Tebbutt Letters’ in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, containing Grigg’s orbital computations. Grigg sent this to Tebbutt with his letter of 12 August 1902 (Grigg 1902b).

  4. 4.

    Hughes (1991) has problems reconciling the “… six very rough observations … made between 1902 July 22 and 1902 August 3 …” with Kronk’s (1984: 255) claim that Grigg observed the comet on 14 occasions. Grigg clarifies this in his 12 August 1902 letter to Tebbutt: “I recorded 14 obsn. of the comet (also comparison stars) on 6 nights till Aug 3 …” (Grigg 1902b).

  5. 5.

    In Orchiston (1985b: 233) I incorrectly stated that Grigg discovered a second comet in 1902, bringing his tally to five, not four. A letter dated 2 May in the 1902 volume of Letters to J. Tebbutt in the Mitchell Library (Sydney) documents the discovery on 17 April of a new comet, and its subsequent observation (Grigg 1902a). I originally interpreted this as an independent discovery by Grigg of C/1902 G1 (Brooks) just two days after the initial discovery, but a subsequent re-analysis revealed that the letter in question dates from 1903 and relates to C/1903 H1 (Grigg). For some reason this letter was misbound in the 1902 volume of Letters to John Tebbutt. The Family History (Grigg 1970), which contains a far from accurate account of Grigg’s cometary discoveries, also states (on p. 28) that he found a second comet in 1902.

  6. 6.

    In Orchiston and Brewer (1990: 177) this quote is incorrectly attributed to Merfield.

  7. 7.

    This figure was arrived at by consulting Marsden’s Catalogue of Cometary Orbits (1989), and after allowing for their superior instrumental means also noting comets that actually were observed by David Ross (see Orchiston and Brewer 1990; Tebbutt 1908) during this period.

  8. 8.

    Tebbutt observed the comet in December, but because it was “… in northern declination, and on the confines of the evening twilight, was not observed with the micrometer.” (Tebbutt 1895: 13), and he was prevented from making post-perihelion observations in 1895 March because of cloudy weather (Tebbutt 1896: 15).

  9. 9.

    Rodney Austin, whose three comet discoveries are discussed in the next paragraph, notes that

    At that time I was working at Mt John myself, and was off duty that evening - comethunting (!) only about 100 metres away from the building where Mike was busy taking plates for the Bamburg Observatory patrol. He found the comet on inspecting his plates the following day. He started looking VERY closely at his plates after just missing the discovery of the SN in NGC 5253 the previous year. (Shanklin 2014).

  10. 10.

    Both Grigg and Biggs were committed to the popularization of astronomy, and each constructed technical equipment to assist their astronomical pursuits, including a telephone. Biggs’ main research interest was double stars. Beyond astronomy, both men conducted choirs over many years, and composed music.

  11. 11.

    Both Grigg and Ross observed known comets and searched successfully for new ones. Both men were pioneers in astronomical photography, and were committed to the popularization of astronomy. But unlike Grigg, Ross made his own (reflecting) telescopes.

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the following for their assistance: Mrs Beverley Angus (Wellington, NZ), Rod Austin (New Plymouth, NZ), the late Graham Blow (formerly Carter Observatory, Wellington, NZ), the late Robert Campbell (Oamaru, NZ), the late George Eiby (Wellington, NZ), Nick Frost and Hazel McGee (British Astronomical Association, London), Richard Gillespie and Lorenzo Iozzi (Museum Victoria, Melbourne), Pam Kilmartin and Alan Gilmore (Mount John Observatory, NZ), the late Peter Hingley (former RAS Librarian, London), Dr Nick Lomb (formerly Sydney Observatory) and John Seymour (Palmerson North, NZ). I also wish to thank Rod Austin and John Drummond (Patutahi, NZ) for reading and commenting on the first draft of this chapter, and Rod Austin, the British Astronomical Association, Michael Clark, Alan Gilmore, and Museum Victoria for providing Figs. 17.4, 17.5, 17.19, 17.20 and 17.21.

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    Wayne Orchiston

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Orchiston, W. (2016). John Grigg, and the Genesis of Cometary Astronomy in New Zealand. In: Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 422. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22566-1_17

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