Talk:President of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Francis Baily[edit]

Francis Baily's 4th term is specified as 1843-1845, and indeed both sources confirm this. But the article about him states his death year as 1844, and the sources cited there confirm this date as well. How can this be? Skyd4ncer33 (talk) 10:04, 22 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

That is a very good question! Multiple sources confirm that Baily died in August 1844. I found [1] which lists Airy as the president at a special general meeting in November 1844. The ADS records of MNRAS vols 5&6 are a mess, but browsing through the latter issue led me to [2]. That states that Baily died in office, so the September 1844 meeting of RAS Council (not of the full society) appointed Airy as President until the next AGM. That also makes it unclear whether Airy or Baily spent more time as president - it comes down to how many months were in each of their partial terms. Modest Genius ^talk 14:19, 22 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

At that, Airy is not listed in this time interval at all! However, you've found quite a reasonable approach, that is, to look over MNRASes carefully, to find who was mentioned as a president at every Society meeting. Maybe I'll try this, for example here (we used to make use of this service in Russian Internet). Skyd4ncer33 (talk) 13:19, 28 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

So, I've examined this source and found out that there have been no.9 (issue 9) in vol.6, and this very no.9 is not available on the [official MNRAS page]. It is located at pp. 85-87 of the vol. Moreover, this very no.9 contains the following text in the beginning:

Nov. 8, 1844.
G. B. Airy, President, in the Chair.
The Secretary read the following extract from the Minutes of Council, dated September 20, 1844: -
"The office of President having become vacant since the last Meeting of the Council, in consequence of the death of Mr. Baily, it was moved by Mr. Sheepshanks, seconded by Mr. De Morgan, and resolved unanimously,
That Mr. Airy be appointed to fill the office of President of the Society until the next Annual Gradual Meeting.
Resolved also,
That Mr. Christie be appointed Vice-President in the room of Mr. Airy, until the next Annual Gradual Meeting.

So, it confirms the information that Baily died in Aug 1844. But what should we do with sources listing him as a president till 1845? And, further, what should we do with Airy? I'll try to go on my investigation to find out how long had he been the president... Skyd4ncer33 (talk) 13:16, 29 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

That's exactly the passage I linked to in my second URL above. As the AGM is always held in May, I think that makes Airy the longest-serving president by a few months: Airy would have served 7 years plus Sept-May, whereas Baily was 7 years plus May-August. (Assuming Airy's one year term was May-May, I haven't checked.) If we're both in agreement, I can update the article accordingly, using that MNRAS notice as the reference. Modest Genius ^talk 13:43, 29 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, certainly, that's a very good plan, I believe you'll do it much faster and better! I didn't know when the AGM were to hold, so could't calculate this. Skyd4ncer33 (talk) 18:07, 29 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Done. I also dug out my copy of History of the RAS, vol 1. Page 86 confirms that Baily died in office in 1844, but there's no mention of who took over. Modest Genius ^talk 20:23, 9 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

That's great, I'll update the Russian article in the same way. Skyd4ncer33 (talk) 09:44, 11 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]