Warren De la Rue

Warren De la Rue (18 January 181519 April 1889) was a British astronomer, chemist, and inventor, most famous for his pioneering work in astronomical photography.

Biography He was born in Guernsey on the Channel Islands, Having completed his education at the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris, he entered his father's business, but devoted his leisure hours to chemical and electrical researches, and between 1836 and 1848 published several papers on these subjects. The design was based on the concept that the high melting point of platinum would allow it to operate at high temperatures and that the evacuated chamber would contain fewer gas molecules to react with the platinum, improving its longevity. Although it was an efficient design, the cost of the platinum made it impractical for commercial use.

Attracted to astronomy by the influence of James Nasmyth, he constructed in 1850 a 13-inch reflecting telescope, mounted first at Canonbury, later at Cranford, Middlesex, and with its aid executed many drawings of the celestial bodies of singular beauty and fidelity. In 1851 his attention was drawn to a daguerreotype of the moon by G. P. Bond, shown at the great exhibition of that year. Excited to emulate and employ the more rapid wet-collodion process, he succeeded before long in obtaining exquisitely defined lunar pictures, which remained unsurpassed until the appearance of the Lewis Morris Rutherfurd photographs in 1865. He established his temporary observatory in the neighboring Quintanilla de la Ribera. This expedition formed the subject of the Bakerian Lecture already referred to. The photographs obtained on that occasion proved beyond doubt the solar character of the prominences or red flames, seen around the limb of the moon during a solar eclipse. In 1873 De la Rue gave up active work in astronomy, and presented most of his astronomical instruments to the university observatory, Oxford. Subsequently, in the year 1887, he provided the same observatory with a 13-inch refractor to enable it to take part in the International Photographic Survey of the Heavens. and in addition to their Bakerian Lecture in 1862 was awarded in 1864 their Royal Medal "for his observations on the 1860 total eclipse of the sun and his improvements in astronomical photography." He had married Georgiana, the third daughter of Thomas Bowles of Guernsey; they had four sons and one daughter.

Honours and awards Awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1862. Awarded the Royal Medal from the Royal Society in 1864. Awarded the Lalande Prize in 1866. The crater De La Rue on the Moon is named after him. Commander of the Legion of Honor (France). Commander of the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus (Italy). Knight of the Imperial Order of the Rose (Brazil).