Francis Baily

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Baily, detail from an engraving by Thomas Lufton after a portrait by Thomas Phillips

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Francis Baily

British astronomer

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Born:: April 28, 1774, Newbury, Berkshire, Eng.

Died:: Aug. 30, 1844, London (aged 70)

Subjects Of Study:: Baily’s beads

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Baily's beadsBaily's beads seen during a total eclipse of the Sun.

Francis Baily (born April 28, 1774, Newbury, Berkshire, Eng.—died Aug. 30, 1844, London) was an astronomer who detected the phenomenon called “Baily’s beads” during an annular eclipse of the Sun on May 15, 1836. His vivid description aroused new interest in the study of eclipses.

Baily retired from a successful business career in 1825 and turned his energies to science. He had already, in 1820, taken a leading part in the foundation of the Royal Astronomical Society, which awarded him its Gold Medal in 1827 for his preparation of the society’s catalog of 2,881 stars. His protests regarding the British Nautical Almanac, then notorious for its errors, were instrumental in bringing about its reform. Baily revised several star catalogs, repeated Henry Cavendish’s experiments to determine the density of the Earth, and measured its elliptical shape.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.