Samuel Arthur Saunder

Samuel Arthur Saunder (1852 – December 8, 1912) was a British mathematician and selenographer who taught at Wellington College, Berkshire. In 1894 he became a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and in 1908 he was made Gresham Professor of Astronomy giving public lectures on the subject.^[1]

Saunder was one of the first to use photography of the Moon to measure and triangulate its features.^[2] He was also responsible for pointing out the confused state of lunar nomenclature at the beginning of the 20th century, and initiating the process of standardizing the names of lunar features.^[3] The crater Saunder on the Moon was named after him in 1935.^[4][5]

References

1. "Mr. S. A. Saunder", Nature, 90 (2250): 415–416, 12 December 1912, Bibcode:1912Natur..90..415., doi:10.1038/090415a0.
2. Davies, M. E. (2007), "Geodetic control", in Greeley, Ronald; Batson, Raymond M. (eds.), Planetary Mapping, Cambridge Planetary Science, vol. 6, Cambridge University Press, pp. 141–168, ISBN 9780521033732. See in particular p. 143.
3. Whitaker, Ewen A. (2003), Mapping and Naming the Moon: A History of Lunar Cartography and Nomenclature, Cambridge University Press, p. 153, ISBN 9780521544146.
4. Anderson, Clifford N. (1964), The Solar System and the Constellations: A Guidebook, Vantage Press, A large ring to the west [sic] of Hipparchus, named for an English selenographer Samuel A. Saunder (1852-1912).
5. Saunder, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, USGS, retrieved 2014-11-13.