Prentice, John Philip Manning
- Thomas R. Williams
- … show all 1 hide
BornStowmarket, Suffolk, England, 14 March 1903
DiedStowmarket, Suffolk, England, 6 October 1981
John Prentice discovered the Giacobinid (Draconid) meteor shower and Nova DQ Herculis 1934, but his main contributions to astronomy came through his careful supervision of the British Astronomical Association [BAA] Meteor Section for over 30 years. Prentice played an important role in establishing radar observation as a primary technique for studying meteors.
A lawyer by profession, Manning Prentice (as he was known to his friends) acquired an interest in astronomy as a schoolboy. He first began observing the Moon and planets with a small refractor, and later meteors with his naked eye. After joining the BAA in 1919, Prentice continued his meteor observations and was appointed leader of the BAA Meteor Section in 1923, holding that position until 1954.
In 1915, Reverend Martin Davidson (1880–1968) pointed out that the orbit of the short-period comet 21P/Giacobini – Zinner passed close enough to ...
- Prentice, John Philip Manning
- Reference Work Title
- Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers
- pp 1760-1761
- Print ISBN
- Online ISBN
- Springer New York
- Copyright Holder
- Springer Science+Business Media New York
- Additional Links
- eBook Packages
- Editor Affiliations
- 1. Department of Earth Science, University of Northern Iowa
- 2. University of California, Irvine School of Physical Sciences
- 3. Rice University
- 4. Whitman College
- 5. York Univesity
- 6. University of Wisconsin
- 7. University of Oklahoma
- 8. Harvard University
- Thomas R. Williams (1698)
- Author Affiliations
- 1698. Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
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