William Frederick Denning

William Frederick Denning
William Denning celebrated in Punch magazine Vol. 102, 9 April 1892, on the occasion of The Times newspaper commenting on Denning's discovery of a small faint comet on Friday 18 March 1892 at Bishopston, Bristol
Born	(1848-11-25)25 November 1848
Died	9 June 1931(1931-06-09) (aged 82) Bristol, England
Occupation	Accountant

William Frederick Denning (25 November 1848 – 9 June 1931) was a British amateur astronomer who achieved considerable success without formal scientific training.^[1][2][3] He is known for his catalogues of meteor radiants, observations of Jupiter's red spot, and for the discovery of five comets.^[4] Outside astronomy, as a young man, Denning showed prowess at cricket to the extent W G Grace invited him to play for Gloucestershire. However Denning's retiring nature made him decline the offer.^[1]

Career

Denning devoted a great deal of time to searching for comets, and discovered five of them, including the periodic comet 72P/Denning–Fujikawa and the lost comet D/1894 F1. The latter was the last comet discovered on British soil until the discoveries of George Alcock, and its recovery was announced by the Minor Planet Center with MPEC 2024-Q14.

Denning also studied meteors and novae, discovering Nova Cygni 1920 (V476 Cyg). From 1869 Denning held the combined post of secretary and treasurer of the short-lived Observing Astronomical Society.^[5] Denning was elected to the Royal Astronomical Society on 8 June 1877.^[6] He was first elected to the British Astronomical Association on 24 June 1891 and rejoined in 1898, being elected as a member on 16 October of that year.^[7] He directed its Comet Section (1891–1893) and Meteor Section (1899–1900).^[8] He won the Prix Valz of the French Academy of Sciences for 1895.^[9]

During his life, Denning published 1179 articles^[10] in prominent scientific journals including Nature, The Observatory, Astronomische Nachrichten, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Journal des Observateurs, and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.^[11]

Awards and honors

• In 1898, Denning won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.^[2]
• He also won the Donohoe Comet Medal for his July 23, 1890 discovery of a comet.^[12][13]
• Such was his standing in the astronomical community that following his death a memorial tablet was fixed to his house.^[14]
• Crater Denning on the Moon as well as the Martian crater Denning were named after him in 1970 and 1973, respectively.^[15][16]
• Asteroid 71885 Denning, discovered by the Spacewatch program in 2000, was named in his memory.^[4] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 4 October 2009 (M.P.C. 67219).^[17]

References

1. "Obituary Notice: Denning, William Frederick". MNRAS. 92: 248–250. February 1932. Bibcode:1932MNRAS..92..248.. doi:10.1093/mnras/92.4.248.
2. Addison, Henry Robert; Oakes, Charles Henry; Lawson, William John; Sladen, Douglas Brooke Wheelton (1907). "DENNING, William F." Who's Who. 59: 470.
3. Hockey, Thomas (2009). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
4. "(71885) Denning = 2000 WD". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
5. "1869AReg....7..165. Page 165". Astronomical Register. 7: 165. 1869. Bibcode:1869AReg....7..165. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
6. Dreyer, J. L. E. (1877). "1877MNRAS..37..427D Page 427". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 37: 427. Bibcode:1877MNRAS..37..427D. doi:10.1093/mnras/37.8.427.
7. "1898JBAA....9...28. Page 28". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 9: 28. 1898. Bibcode:1898JBAA....9...28. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
8. Kelly, Howard L.; Gale, W. F.; Evershed, M. A.; Porthouse, William; Ryves, P. M.; Peek, B. M.; Davidson, M.; Prentice, J. P. M.; Kellaway, G. F.; Housman, W. B.; Porter, J. G.; Reade, Vera (1947). "The British Astronomical Association: The First Fifty Years" (PDF). Memoirs of the British Astronomical Association. 36: 55. Bibcode:1947MmBAA..36C..55K.
9. "Prix Valz". Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences. Vol. Tomes XCII à CXXI, 3 Janvier 1881 à 30 Décembre 1895. Paris: Gauthier-Villars. 1900. pp. 1574–1575.
10. Beech, Martin (February 1998). "W. F. Denning—The Doyen of Amateur Astronomers". WGN: Journal of the International Meteor Organization. 26 (1): 19–24. Bibcode:1998JIMO...26...19B. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
11. Accomazzi, Alberto; Kurtz, Michael J.; Murray, Stephen S. (2016). "SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System". Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
12. "Awards of the Comet-Medal of the ASP (1890-1896)". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 9. San Francisco: 99. 1897. JSTOR 40671005.
13. Denning, W. F. (September 1890). "Comet c, 1890". The Observatory. 13 (166): 295. Bibcode:1890Obs....13..295F.
14. "1932Obs....55...14. Page 14". The Observatory. 55: 14. 1932. Bibcode:1932Obs....55...14. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
15. "Lunar crater Denning". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
16. "Martian crater Denning". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
17. "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 6 February 2020.

• Phil Williams (July 2015) "William Frederick Denning F.R.A.S." Liverpool Astronomical Society Newsletter (July 2015, pp,4–6)

External links

• Works by or about William Frederick Denning at Wikisource
• Telescopic work for starlight evenings Cornell University Library Historical Monographs Collection.
• W. F. Denning – The Doyen of Amateur Astronomers Short biography by Martin Beech, Campion College, The University of Regina, Canada