Reverend William Frederick Archdall Ellison
FRAS(28 April 1864 – 31 December 1936) was an Irish
clergyman
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...
,
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
scholar, organist, avid
amateur telescope maker, and, from 1918 to 1936, director of
Armagh Observatory
Armagh Observatory is an astronomical research institute in Armagh, Northern Ireland. Around 25 astronomers are based at the observatory, studying stellar astrophysics, the Sun, Solar System astronomy and Earth's climate.
In 2018, Armagh Obs ...
in
Armagh
Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...
, Northern Ireland. He was the father of
Mervyn A. Ellison, the senior professor of the School of Cosmic Physics at
Dunsink Observatory
The Dunsink Observatory is an astronomical observatory established in 1785 in the townland of Dunsink in the outskirts of the city of Dublin, Ireland. Alexander Thom''Irish Almanac and Official Directory''7th ed., 1850 p. 258. Retrieved: 2011-0 ...
from 1958 to 1963.
Biography
Ellison came from a clerical family, his father Humphrey Eakins Ellison having been
Dean of Ferns, County Wexford. He gained a
sizar
At Trinity College Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is an Undergraduate education, undergraduate who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in retur ...
ship of
classics
Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...
at
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...
in 1883, became a Scholar of the House in 1886 and graduated in 1887 with junior moderatorships in classics and experimental science. In 1890 he took
Holy Orders
In certain Christian denominations, holy orders are the ordination, ordained ministries of bishop, priest (presbyter), and deacon, and the sacrament or rite by which candidates are ordained to those orders. Churches recognizing these orders inclu ...
and moved to England, where he became the
Curate
A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...
of
Tudhoe and
Monkwearmouth. In 1894 he took his
MA and
BD degrees and in the following year won the Elrington Theological Prize.
In 1899 he returned to Ireland to become secretary of the
Sunday School Society
The Sunday School Society was a British association of Sunday schools.
History
It was founded by Baptist deacon William Fox on 7 September 1785 in Prescott Street Baptist Church of London. The latter had been touched by articles by the editor ...
, a post which he held for three years before accepting the
incumbency of Monart,
Enniscorthy
Enniscorthy () is the second-largest town in County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is located on the picturesque River Slaney and in close proximity to the Blackstairs Mountains and Ireland's longest beach, Curracloe.
The Plac ...
, moving in 1908 to become
Rector of
Fethard-on-Sea with
Tintern
Tintern () is a village in the community (Wales), community of Wye Valley (community), Wye Valley, on the west bank of the River Wye in Monmouthshire, Wales, close to the border with England, about north of Chepstow. It is popular with tourist ...
in
Wexford
Wexford ( ; archaic Yola dialect, Yola: ''Weiseforthe'') is the county town of County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the ...
. Ellison had developed an interest in astronomy, having been introduced to practical
optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of optical instruments, instruments that use or Photodetector, detect it. Optics usually describes t ...
by Dr N. Alcock of Dublin and set up his first observatory at Wexford. On the 31 December 1913 he joined the British Astronomical Association. He became highly adept at making lenses and mirrors and wrote several books and articles on the subject, including major contributions to the ''Amateur Telescope Making'' series, the
Journal of the British Astronomical Association
The ''Journal of the British Astronomical Association'' is a peer review, peer-reviewed scientific journal of astronomy published by the British Astronomical Association since October 1890. It is currently Editor-in-chief, edited by Philip Jennings ...
, and the weekly newspaper
The English Mechanic
''The English Mechanic and World of Science'', commonly referred to as ''English Mechanic'', was a popular science, popular-science magazine, published weekly from 1865 to 1926, generally consisting of 24 pages. It was aimed at people interested i ...
. On 8 February 1918 he was elected to the fellowship of the
Royal Astronomical Society
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...
. His book ''The Amateur's Telescope'' (1920) is still considered a standard for telescope-makers and a forerunner of the more extensive series on the same topic by
Albert Graham Ingalls.
On 2 September 1918 Ellison was appointed Director of the Armagh Observatory. He found the Observatory in a state of disrepair and set about repairing the instruments and the observatory dome. On 3 January 1919 he deeded a telescope of his own to the observatory, an 18-inch
reflecting telescope
A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternati ...
, which is still there.
Ellison was a highly regarded planetary and
binary star
A binary star or binary star system is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved as separate stars us ...
observer. Working with his son Mervyn, he made many measurements of
binary star
A binary star or binary star system is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved as separate stars us ...
s using the observatory's 10-inch
Grubb refractor
A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope design was originally used in spyglasses and ...
telescope and even discovered a new one close to
Beta Lyrae
Beta Lyrae (β Lyrae, abbreviated Beta Lyr, β Lyr) officially named Sheliak (Arabic: الشلياق, Romanization: ash-Shiliyāq) ( IPA: ), the traditional name of the system, is a multiple star system in the constellation of Lyra. Base ...
, and according to
Patrick Moore
Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore (; 4 March 1923 – 9 December 2012) was an English amateur astronomer who attained prominence in that field as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter.
Moore's early interest in astro ...
, was one of the few people to have observed an eclipse of Saturn's moon
Iapetus
In Greek mythology, Iapetus (; ; ), also Japetus, is a Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia and father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius. He was also called the father of Buphagus and Anchiale in other sources.
Iapetus was linked ...
by Saturn's
outermost (A) ring on 28 February 1919.
In 1934 Ellison became
Canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western canon, th ...
and
Prebendary
A prebendary is a member of the Catholic Church, Catholic or Anglicanism , Anglican clergy, a form of canon (priest) , canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in part ...
of
Ballymore,
Armagh Cathedral. He died on 31 December 1936, having held the office of Director of the observatory for nearly twenty years.
Bibliography
* ''The Amateur's Telescope'' (R. Carswell & Son, Ltd., 1920)
Notes
References
*
*
External links
Online version of ''The Amateur's Telescope''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellison, William Frederick Archdall
1864 births
1936 deaths
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
19th-century Irish astronomers
20th-century Irish astronomers
Place of birth missing
19th-century Irish Anglican priests
20th-century Irish Anglican priests