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using the then new technology of silver coated glass mirrors. For the first of these, a telescope of his own design constructed in 1876, he tried to grind and polish his own 17 inch mirror but gave up on the idea and ordered an 18-inch (46 cm) mirror from George Calver of
Chelmsford. In 1877 and
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In response to problems of rifle aiming and accuracy revealed in the 2nd Anglo-Boer War, he designed an experimental short telescopic sight for the Lee–Enfield rifle, on a removable offset mounting graduated up to 2000 yards range, which anticipated several features used on many later military rifle
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Dr. Common was largely retired by 1890 and devoted himself full-time to optical design and construction until his death. Most of his time was spent in the design of telescopic and optical sights for the Royal Navy and the Royal
Artillery, in which work he was a pioneer. Captain (later Admiral Sir)
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although some details are lost in the enlargement, sufficient remains to show that we are approaching the time where a photograph will give us the means to recording in its own inimitable way the shape of a nebula and the relative brightness different parts, in a better manner than the most careful
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outside London where he would live for the rest of his life operating an astronomical observatory from the back garden of his house. Common realised he would need very large telescopes to gather enough light to record the images of stars photographically so he began building a series of ever larger
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on 7 August 1841. His father, Thomas Common, a surgeon known for his treatment of cataract, died when Andrew was a child, forcing him to go early into the world of work. In the 1860s he teamed up with an uncle in the sanitary engineering firm of
Matthew Hall and Company. He married in 1867. In 1890
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he mounted a diagonal flat mirror just in front of it to bring the image out to a focus at the lower side of the telescope. He was not satisfied with how this configuration worked and that, combined with his attention being diverted to other projects and the ever more light polluted skies west of
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Although Common's professional career was in the field of sanitary engineering, he is most noted for the work he did as an amateur in the field of astronomy. As a child Andrew showed interest in astronomy. At age 10 his mother borrowed a telescope for him to use from a local doctor, Dr. Bates of
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In 1885 Common embarked on building a 60-inch (150 cm) Newtonian reflecting telescope. He chose to buy the raw glass blank and do the grinding and polishing himself. The first mirror he made performed poorly, showing an elliptical deformation of the stars, causing him to fabricate a second
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Percy Scott, one of the leading gunnery officers of the Royal Navy, stated in 1902 that Dr. Common had "...produced (that is "designed") a telescope sight which would, when properly used, quadruple the fighting efficiency of our battleships".
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In 1879 he bought a new 36-inch (910 mm) mirror from Calver to mount in a larger
Newtonian reflecting telescope he was building. He used it to make further observations of satellites of Mars and Saturn, and was able to see Saturn's moon
564:"Waywiser, the online database of Harvard's Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments", Object Name: 15.875-inch secondary mirror for 60-inch reflecting telescope Inventory Number: 1996-1-0684 Classification: Mirror
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between 1880 and 1884. His 1883 photograph of that nebula for the first time showed photography's ability to record stars and other features invisible to the human eye. Common noted of his own photographs that:
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London, meant the telescope fell into disuse. After Common's death the telescope with its two 60 inch mirrors and other secondary optics was purchased from his estate and installed at the
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mirror in 1890. After a near fall from the high staging needed to reach the
Newtonian focus of the telescope Common decided to convert the telescope to a
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Morpeth. He returned to astronomy in his 30s when he took up experimenting with gelatin plate photography of the moon and planets with a
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Portrait of Andrew
Ainslie Common from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections
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and show that the ephemeris of its orbit was incorrect. With this instrument he also obtained a photograph of a comet in 1881,
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1878 he published several articles on his visual observations of the satellites of Mars and Saturn. In 1896 Common joined the
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Common's photograph of the Orion Nebula, for which he won the Royal
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and a new mount built. It was then set up as the 1.5-meter Boyden-UFS reflector (also called the "
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he retired from
Matthew Hall. Andrew Ainslie Common died of heart failure 2 June 1903.
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Common's 18-inch reflector in his garden shed in the 1870s at his house in Ealing
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in 1884. Common eventually sold the 36-inch reflector to
British politician
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configuration for safer use. To avoid having to bore a hole in the 60 inch
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He also pioneered techniques in producing large optical flat mirrors.
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History of astronomy: an encyclopedia by John
Lankford, page 512
346:"Obituary Notices : Fellows :- Common, Andrew Ainslie"
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Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
612:"Andrew Anslie Common | Science Museum Group Collection"
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Gingerich, Owen (1980). "The First Photograph of a Nebula".
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Turner, H. H. (1903). "Obituary: Andrew Ainslie Common".
231:These pictures earned Common the Gold Medal of the
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351:Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
438:Andrew Ainslie Common photographs in the London
532:Journal of the British Astronomical Association
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667:Presidents of the Royal Astronomical Society
492:The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers
307:Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
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662:Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society
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170:In 1876 Common became a Fellow of the
115:best known for his pioneering work in
269:. In the 1933 the primary mirror was
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642:Scientists from Newcastle upon Tyne
174:. About this time he also moved to
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422:Andrew Ainslie Common (1841–1903)
647:19th-century British astronomers
186:British Astronomical Association
181:Newtonian reflecting telescopes
528:"1896JBAA....6..455. Page 455"
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652:Fellows of the Royal Society
584:The History of the Telescope
476:Who's who, biographies, 1901
313:Fellow of the Royal Society
301:Selected honours and awards
267:Harvard College Observatory
111:(1841–1903) was an English
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320:Royal Astronomical Society
233:Royal Astronomical Society
172:Royal Astronomical Society
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472:"Common, Andrew Ainslie"
489:Hockey, Thomas (2009).
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373:10.1093/mnras/64.4.274
243:in 1895, becoming the
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251:The 60-inch reflector
247:at that observatory.
200:The 36-inch reflector
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106:Andrew Ainslie Common
37:Andrew Ainslie Common
25:Andrew Ainslie Common
582:King, Henry (2003).
478:. 1901. p. 287.
406:(November): 364–366.
157:refracting telescope
155:inches (14 cm)
544:1896JBAA....6..455.
497:Springer Publishing
432:27 May 2015 at the
395:1903Obs....26..304T
364:1904MNRAS..64..274.
275:60-inch Rockefeller
129:Newcastle Upon Tyne
127:Common was born in
50:Newcastle Upon Tyne
588:Dover Publications
279:Boyden Observatory
245:Crossley telescope
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113:amateur astronomer
16:English astronomer
506:978-0-387-31022-0
404:Sky and Telescope
358:: 274–278. 1904.
318:President of the
281:in South Africa.
136:Work in astronomy
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84:Scientific career
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389:: 304–308.
322:(1895–1896)
65:Citizenship
60:2 June 1903
626:Categories
547:Retrieved
447:References
271:re-figured
258:Cassegrain
512:22 August
294:'scopes.
211:C/1881 K1
123:Biography
94:Astronomy
567:Archived
430:Archived
327:See also
549:27 June
540:Bibcode
391:Bibcode
360:Bibcode
150:⁄
68:English
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315:(1885)
309:(1884)
277:") at
176:Ealing
90:Fields
207:Mimas
592:ISBN
551:2021
514:2012
501:ISBN
57:Died
43:Born
368:doi
109:FRS
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