Biographical Memoirs Volume 79 (2001) / Chapter Skim
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Gerald M. Clemence
Gerald M. Clemence
Pages 50-65
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From page 51... ...
He was one of a small group of clynamical astronomers in this country before the ciawn of the space age, en cl his scientific career spanned the entire period from the leac! pencil era of hanc!
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From page 52... ...
the eighth grade at the age of 12, his mother thought him too young to enter high school, so he kept the house for one winter while his mother taught school. It was cluring this early period that he clevelopecl his love for goocl music en cl literature.
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From page 53... ...
After he mastered the fundamentals of such work he decided to take on two ambitious projects concerning the planets Mercury en cl Mars. The orbits of the major planets of the Solar System, which hacl been acloptecl for international use by most major nations, hacl been computed in the later part of the nineteenth century.
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From page 54... ...
In aciclition to his requires! cluties in the Nine-Inch Transit Circle Division Geralcl cleciclecl to undertake the extra work of comparing all of the observations of Mercury with Newcomb's orbit in order to derive more accurate orbital elements en cl to rencler more reliable the predictions en cl other uses of these elements.
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From page 55... ...
The routine work of the Nautical Almanac Office and other war work commanded the highest priorities during these years, and Gerald and Paul cooperated on many projects for the armecl forces. They also developed the principle in the construction and use of mathematical tables known as the optimum-interval method (1944~.
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From page 56... ...
THE GOLDEN YEARS FOR CELESTIAL MECHANICS In 1947 the Office of Naval Research began a sustained period of support for research in celestial mechanics through a contract involving Yale, the Nautical Almanac Office, en c! the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory.
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From page 57... ...
the basis for the later introduction of the iclea of ephemeris time at the 1950 Paris conference. He playocl a primary role in the simultaneous numerical integration of the orbits of the five outer planets (1951)
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From page 58... ...
Nautical Almanac Office, he was able to convince the naval administration that it was to everyone's benefit to unify the British en cl American air almanacs. This unification was later extenclecl to all tables for navigation in the Uniter!
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From page 59... ...
In 1946 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain en cl in 1952 an associate. Geralcl was an active participant in the activities of the International Astronomical Union, serving as president of Commission 7 (Celestial Mechanics)
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From page 60... ...
In 1965 he was awarclecl the GoIcl Mecial of the Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain "in recognition of his application of celestial mechanics to motions in the Solar System en cl his funciamental contributions to the stucly of time en cl the system of astronomical constants." Sir Richarc! Woolley, president of the society, notecl the many similarities between Geralcl's accomplishments en cl those of his famous predecessor Simon Newcomb.
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From page 61... ...
THIS MEMOIR was derived from Gerald Clemence's published papers; his autobiographical sketch on file at the National Academy of Sciences; from data received earlier from Paul Herget and D
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From page 62... ...
Coordinates of the five outer planets, 1653-2060. Astron.
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From page 63... ...
The accuracy of the coordinates of the five outer planets and the invariable plane. Astron.
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From page 64... ...
Spherical Astronomy. New York: Academic Press.
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