Philip Herbert Cowell

Philip Herbert Cowell FRS[2] (7 August 1870, Calcutta – 6 June 1949) was a British astronomer.[3][4][5]

Minor planets discovered: 1 [1]
4358 Lynn5 October 1909MPC

Philip Herbert Cowell was born in Calcutta, India and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge.[6] He became second chief assistant at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in 1896 and later became the Superintendent of HM Nautical Almanac Office during 1910–1930. He worked on celestial mechanics, and orbits of comets and minor planets in particular. He also carefully studied the discrepancy that then existed between the theory and observation of the position of the Moon.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 3 May 1906.[2][7] He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1911.

In 1909, he discovered 4358 Lynn, a 10-kilometer sized main-belt asteroid and member of the Eunomia.[8][9]

In 1910, Cowell and Andrew Crommelin jointly received the Prix Jules Janssen, the highest award of the Société astronomique de France, the French astronomical society.

He died in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. The main-belt asteroid 1898 Cowell is named after him.[10]

References
  1. "Minor Planet Discoverers (by number)". Minor Planet Center. 23 May 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  2. Whittaker, E. T. (1949). "Philip Herbert Cowell 1870–1949". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 6 (18): 375–384. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1949.0003. JSTOR 768930.
  3. Jackson, J. (December 1949). "Obituary Notices : Cowell, Philip Herbert". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 110 (2): 125–128. Bibcode:1950MNRAS.110R.125.. doi:10.1093/mnras/110.2.125a.
  4. "Notes : Obituaries". The Observatory. 69: 159–160. August 1949. Bibcode:1949Obs....69..159.
  5. "General Notes". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 61 (362): 241. October 1949. Bibcode:1949PASP...61..241.. doi:10.1086/126191.
  6. "Cowell, Philip Herbert (CWL889PH)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  7. "List of fellows of the Royal Society 1660–2007" (PDF). The Royal Society – Library and Information Services. p. 83. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  8. "4358 Lynn (A909 TF)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  9. "LCDB Data for (4358) Lynn". Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB). Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  10. Schmadel, Lutz D. (2007). "(1898) Cowell". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (1898) Cowell. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 152. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_1899. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3.
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