Sir Harold Spencer Jones - Honours

Astronomer, born in London, UK. He studied at Cambridge, and became chief assistant to the Astronomer Royal at Greenwich (1913–23). He then served as astronomer at the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope (1923–33), before returning to Greenwich to become Astronomer Royal (1933–55). He organized an international project to determine Earth–Sun distance, using a close approach of the asteroid Eros, and improving on previous values. He investigated problems related to the Earth's rotation, introduced a new system of time measurement in astronomy, ephemeris time, and brought about the move of the Royal Observatory from Greenwich to Herstmonceux in East Sussex.

Sir Harold Spencer Jones KBE (March 29, 1890 – November 3, 1960) was a British astronomer.

In 1913 he became Chief Assistant at the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

Honours

Awards

Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1943) Royal Medal (1943) Bruce Medal (1949)

Named after him

Spencer Jones crater on the Moon Jones crater on Mars (erroneously, since "Spencer" was not his middle name but part of his full surname) Asteroid 3282 Spencer Jones