Edmond Halley

Timeline

1. 1656–1676Oxford · OxfordshireBorn at Haggerston near London, he entered The Queen's College, Oxford in 1673 to study mathematics and astronomy, corresponded with Flamsteed, and began observing planets and comets.
2. 1676–1678Saint Helena · Saint HelenaHe was granted permission to go to the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic to compile a catalogue of southern celestial bodies; after returning to England he published his southern star catalogue and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1678.
3. 1684–1705London · LondonIn 1684 he visited Newton and urged him to work up his gravitational calculations; when the Society could not afford the printing costs, Halley edited and published the Principia at his own expense in 1687. From 1686 he edited the Philosophical Transactions, and based on comet records from 1456, 1531, 1607, and 1682 he predicted in 1705 that the comet would return in 1758.
4. 1698–1742Greenwich · GreenwichCommanded by William III, he directed the ship Paramore in measuring magnetic declination across the Atlantic; in 1703 he became Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford, and in 1720 succeeded Flamsteed as the second Astronomer Royal, continuing lunar and geomagnetic research until his death.