SOUTHERN ASTRONOMERS and AUSTRALIAN ASTRONOMY
JOHN TEBBUTT (1834-1916) : Part 1
John Tebbutt : Pre-eminent Amateur Astronomer
By Andrew James
Recent Update : 17th August 2008
INTRODUCTION
John Tebbutt was a famous Australian amateur astronomer who
was born on the 25th May 1834 at Windsor, New South Wales —
some fifty-five kilometres northwest of Sydney. He began as
the placid and humble gentleman farmer with his father, also named
John Tebbutt, living on the rich flood plains of the Upper Hawkesbury
River. His family had arrived with his grandfather as new Australian
settlers from England in 1801. His father upon moving to Windsor
immediately started working in his storekeeper business, that he
continued to do until about 1843. He soon sold this business and
moved onto a property two kilometres east of the township to try his
hand at farming on the rich fertile soils of the flood-plain. When
the young son John Tebbutt was twenty-three years old, he
married a local girl named Jane Pendergast at St. Matthew’s Church on 8th September 1857. Between them
they had seven children; included one son and six daughters.
John Tebbutt continues to remain very familiar to southern
amateurs and was genuinely revered by the locals and the broader
Australian public during his lifetime. In recent times, Tebbutt was
again brought to the attention of the general public with his
appearance of his elderly and statesman like face with the background
of his observatory being placed on the first minted Australian
whitish-coloured $100 note issued between 26th March 1984 and January
1996.
Early Life
Teaching much of his primary school education at the local church
school, Mr Edward Quaife, who was reportedly interested in
science and astronomy, guided the young Tebbutt to also pursue such
endeavours. He was always a devout Christian and studied throughout
his life theology, being guided no doubt by the strong Evangelical by
Rev. Henry Tarlton Stills (1808-1867) during his schooling
between 1845 and 1849. He finished his schooling at the age of
fifteen, and then joined his father in farming at the property
several kilometres east of Windsor the father had purchased earlier
in 1844. The next year his father constructed the original main
residential building known as Peninsula House. John inherited
this house in 1870 after his father’s
death, but did astronomical observations from the property from
1853.
Tebbutt was always fascinated by mechanical things, including
steam engines and clocks. He says in his “Astronomical Memoirs” that his interest in astronomy was the
transition between his mechanical inclinations at the young age of
eighteen or nineteen :—
“It dawned on me
that the universe was really a mechanism of the highest order, and
being, as I have already said, mechanically inclined, I began to turn
my attention to celestial mechanism.
From his mid-twenties, Tebbutt began to slowly rise in importance
within the general academic astronomical community, whose personal
stature was to soon to be considered by many as their equal, and
certainly equally as capable as nearly all his fellow Australian and
international astronomers of the day. Yet, not everyone was impressed
with his quick prominence, and he was targeted by many anonymous and
personally by his fellow New South Welshmen, including the
overbearing and demanding Henry Chamberlain
Russell (1836-1907) in the last two decades of the 19th
Century. Much of this was merely professional jealousy, which John
Tebbutt handled with his usual stoic politeness. Sometimes he did
find it necessary to lashed-out to defend his own
position.[1] In most cases, these infrequent outbursts
occurred only early in life of Tebbutt, and probably reflect more his
inexperience than any malicious intent.
After generally unremarkable scholastic endeavours, Tebbutt was to
become amazingly practical, capable and talented with much of his
knowledge was mostly self-taught. This included techniques in farming
techniques, to learning new languages like German and French, helping
him correspond with his European counterparts, while Greek and Latin
in his theological studies. This self-teaching also applied
especially to astronomy, whose early observational skills were able
to extract the most benefit from his meagre equipment. Sometimes his
devotion was so passionate, that he even taught himself much of the
highly technical subjects in astronomy and its required mathematics
and complex calculus.
In 1853, Tebbutt purchased a marine sextant, yet in time as the
farming became more profitable, he was able to acquire much larger
apertures and better equipment, and used these to their maximum
advantage. His dedication to accurate observation was very notable,
and this applied across several diverse subject disciplines.
John Tebbutt’s Telescopic
Equipment
So impressed was the N.S.W. Government Astronomer, the Reverend
William Scott offered John Tebbutt in 1860 a paid astronomical
position at Sydney Observatory, even offering him to become his
immediate successor. Scott again tried tempting Tebbutt in 1861,
after his Great Comet discovery, but this time with the substantial
salary £300. His final vocational offer came in 1862, where
Scott’s main ‘carrot’ was the new superior instruments at Sydney
Observatory — compared to Tebbutt original instrument of a
sextant and small 4.1 cm. marine telescope. Tebbutt, almost acting
defiantly, turned this great opportunity down.
Despite this, his popularity continued to rise between 1854 and
about 1862, but jumped significant after the discovery of the Great
Comet. Before this, he wrote much about general celestial phenomena,
like comets or solar or lunar eclipses, and often published his own
observations in the Sydney Morning Herald.
His discovery of the Great Comet of 1861 also enticed him to
purchase better equipment to do the observational work, and took
advantage of every moment of clear weather to observe. In November
1863, he constructed himself a small wooden observatory, which he
described as being the “carpenter,
bricklayer and slater” By early
1864, this housed the first significant upgraded for his 8.2 cm.
(3¼−inch) refractor, including six eyepieces of various
magnifications. This he used to observe the position of Encke’s Comet and Swift’s Comet (1862 III) in 1862. Next, he
installed the small 5.3 cm. (2−inch) Transit telescope and box
chronometer, built especially for him by the Sydney scientific
instrument and clock maker, Anglo Tornaghi (1831-1906). This
combination became very useful for local timekeeping, and especially
in the accurate timings of the lunar occultations of stars. Again,
in 1872 he purchased the larger Cooke and Sons 11.4cm.
(4½−inch) refractor for £100, and began using it
immediately. He added a small filar micrometer in 1879, which enabled
him to begin doing measures of celestial objects, including bright
double stars like Alpha Centauri and Acrux.
Fourteen years later in 1886, this telescope was replacing with
his largest instrument installed at the observatory — the Grubb
20cm. (8−inch) f/14.3 equatorial refractor. This was purchased
for the princely sum of £400 from the estate of the Victorian
amateur, Dr. William Bone.
Recognition and Accolades
In his life, Tebbutt received many accolades and honours. He was
held in high regard throughout England and Europe, and this help to
put in place the rise of academic excellence against those with
Colonial powers in the distant motherland who, in some ways, often
considered Australia as the uncultured backwater because of it penal
history and pioneer background. Tebbutt by displaying his passion in
advancing astronomy in the international forum, made his local
community, and even those to be to be born in New South Wales, fill
with pride and much needed self-esteem. The rewards given to him just
reinforced this view. For example, at only 28 years old he became a
member of the Royal Philosophical Society of N.S.W. in 1862 and
gained Fellowship by invitation in the London based Royal
Astronomical Society (R.A.S.) in 10th January 1873.
This general acceptance by academia was extraordinary in those
days, bearing in mind that John Tebbutt had no University or similar
educational qualifications. Joining the illustrious ranks of the
astronomical community, he began publishing prodigiously for the next
few decades. His authoritative writing style was both unpretentious
and only minimally presented the facts without embellishment. This
made his peers sit up and take notice, not because of writing skills
but it contained useful data to advance the science. More so, the
seemingly humbleness of his own achievements flew in the face of
others who were seemingly wanted personal fame or kudos — later
only gaining for themselves notoriety and disdain. This is perhaps
why the Government astronomer H.C. Russell, as previously mentioned,
started with mutual respect. When the rewards started to given too
Tebbutt later in his career, the relationship soured and they did not
get on very well. This elevation only exacerbated Russell demeanour,
often into in open displays of annoyance, probably because Russell
had to contend with the demands of producing useful results from the
observing programmes and science conducted at Sydney Observatory.
Such requirements came from the New South Wales. Government who
funded the staff and equipment, and the broader masters of the
English astronomical community. John Tebbutt had no such pressures,
and as an amateur could do what he wished.
He received the Silver Medal from the Paris World Exhibition
(L’Exposition Universelle) held in
Paris between 1st April and 3rd November 1867. This event, although
not attended by Tebbutt (who never left Australia during his life),
celebrated the applied sciences and scientific progress that had
improved the standard of living and modernisation of many nations as
achieved by the industrial revolution. Tebbutt was one of
about 9,500 other non-French recipients of similar awards, but only
Tebbutt and one other lived in Australia. The medal presented to him
was for his paper “On the Progress
and Present State of Astronomical Science in New South Wales”, which was written in French and later
printed in English in Sydney in 1871. Near the end of his observing
career, the Royal Astronomical Society presented Tebbutt in 1905 with
the Hannah Jackson (nee Gwilt) Gift, comprising of £200 pounds
with a bronze medal. This was specifically presented in
acknowledgement of amateur astronomer’
contributions by astronomical observation.
Probably his most important accolade happened in 1914 with the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, who were
visiting Australia for a Conference in Sydney. The astronomers in the
contingent of this important scientific group especially went to
visit John Tebbutt at Windsor by motor car, no doubt to thank him for
his many astronomical contributions. Such adoration towards an
amateur astronomer is unheard of, even today. More importantly
though, it finally gave the credit and respect deserving of one who
contributed so much, made even more remarkable by being so isolated
from all his international peers. But perhaps his final mark of
recognition occurred at the Sydney General Assembly of the
International Astronomical Union (I.A.U.) in 1973, where it was
bestowed the honour of having the lunar crater ‘Tebbutt’ named after him.
NOTE : Fortunately for us, John Tebbutt
published from in Sydney his “Astronomical Memoirs” in 1908, where his own views on his legacy
remain. This work was published at his own expense, and a recent
edition was published a decade or so ago. It is good recommended
reading, that is, if you can find a copy.
The Passing of John Tebbutt
He died at the age of eighty-two of a short duration cerebral
paralysis at Windsor N.S.W. on 29th November 1916 having lived an
amazingly fruitful and successful life. Sadly he died during the
First World War, and sufficient reflective obituaries did not appear
until after 1918. An example, is that presented in Royal Astronomical
Society Journal.
It is probably for this reason that his contributions to the
science were generally overlooked by biographers and writers in the
years that followed. A revival in interest was renewed in Australia
during the early 1980s, and investigations into his amazing life and
lifetime dedication towards prodigious and often precise astronomical
observations. John Tebbutt was buried a self-designed burial vault
within the main historic St. Matthew’s
Church of England Cemetery.
His ancestors continue to live at the observatory site in Windsor
N.S.W., now turned into a restaurant and interesting historical site.
In 1879, he built the brick library building and observatory. This
astronomical library was one of the best in the southern hemisphere,
where Tebbutt acquired both books and journals from international
colleagues and institutions. It also held much of his correspondence
and observational records. Added in 1894 was another room to the
observatory.
Legacy
John Tebbutt also strongly encouraged the local amateur
astronomical community, especially in the observations of comets. He
helped form the British Astronomical Association (N.S.W. Branch) in
1895 and elected as its first President. The branch still existed
until September 2004 and became the Sydney City Skywatchers.
This group continues to meet at Sydney Observatory each month.
John Tebbutt remains among the greatest observational astronomers
in our short Australian history. In his life, he produced more than
370 scientific papers, being 148 in the Astronomische
Nachrichten (AN.) and 120 papers in the Monthly Notices of the
RAS (MNRAS.). (See References)
Many of these were on comets, local eclipses and southern variable
and double stars, especially η
Carinae, the double star Acrux, and the binary star, Alpha Centauri
AB. (cont.)
[1.] See the excellent article on such controversies;
Orchiston, W. (1998)
Last Update : 13th November 2012
Southern Astronomical Delights ©
(2012)
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