Lewis Boss | |
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Lewis Boss
|
|
Born |
Providence, Rhode Island |
26 October 1846
Died | 5 October 1912 Albany, New York |
(aged 65)
Nationality | American |
Fields | Astronomy |
Institutions | Dudley Observatory |
Alma mater | Dartmouth College |
Known for |
compilation Hyades star cluster |
Notable awards |
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society Lalande Prize (1911) |
Spouse | Helen M. Hutchinson Boss |
Children | Benjamin Boss |
Lewis Boss (26 October 1846 – 5 October 1912) was an American astronomer. He served as the director of the Dudley Observatory in Schenectady, New York.
Boss was born in Providence, Rhode Island to Samuel P. and Lucinda (née Joslin) Boss, and attended secondary school at the Lapham Institute in North Scituate and the New Hampton Institution in New Hampshire. In 1870, he graduated from Dartmouth College, then went to work as a clerk for the U.S. Government.
He served as an assistant astronomer for a government expedition to survey the U.S-Canada–United States border. In 1876 he became the directory of the Dudley Observatory in Schenectady, New York.
Boss is noted for his work in cataloguing the locations and proper motions of stars. He also led an expedition to Chile in 1882 to observe the transit of Venus, and catalogued information concerning cometary orbits. His most significant discovery was the calculation of the convergent point of the Hyades star cluster. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1905.