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JOHN RUSSELL, an English astronomer; born in Nottingham , England, May 12, 1823. In 1840 he obtained a situation in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, where he remained till June , Green 1844.
He was then sent as one of the commission appointed to determine the exact longitude of Valentia, and on his return became the observer in Mr.
Bishop's Observatory, Regent's Park, London. Here he calculated the orbits and declination of more than 70 planets and comets, noted a number of new movable stars, and between 1847 and 1854 discovered 10 minor planets (see PLANE- TOIDS). In 1851 he obtained from the Academy of Sciences at Paris their Lalande medal; in 1852 the Astronomical Society of London's gold medal, and a gold medal pension of $1,000 a year from the Britfrom the British government; in 1853 he undertook the editing of the "Nautical Almanac." He "Astronomical Vocabulary" wrote: (1852); "The Comets" (1852); "The Solar System" (1852); "Descriptive Treatise on Comets" (1857). In 1880 he was president of the Royal Astronomical Society. He died in Twickenham, England, Dec. 22, 1895.