Today is the anniversary of the birth, at Woolsthorpe, near Grantham, Lincolnshire on 25 Dec 1642, of the English physicist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton . Although his achievements were many, he is probably best remembered for his ‘Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica’ (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy). Often referred to as ‘The Principia’ and widely considered as being one of the most important works in the history of science, its contents i ncluded details of Newton's laws of motion (which went on to form the basis of classical mechanics) together with his famous law of universal gravitation. The 79 km diameter lunar crater Newton, located in the south polar region close to the southern limb of the Moon, and seen here with the satellite crater Newton D overlying its north-northeastern rim, is named in his honour. Credit: societyforthehistoryofastronomy.com
Name: Laurent Cassegrain Birth: around 1629 Birthplace: Chartres,France Today is the anniversary of the Birth of the French Catholic priest and instrument maker Laurent Cassegrain. Although this image may be a likeness of Laurent Cassegrain, no verifiable portrait of him is known to exist. he is best known to astronomers as being the probable inventor of a type of reflecting telescope which uses a combination of a primary concave mirror and a secondary convex mirror . Now known as the Cassegrain reflector, Cassegrain’s design first appeared in the 25 Apr 1672 issue (pictured) of Le Journal des Sçavans (established by French writer Denis de Sallo in 1665 and the earliest academic journal published in Europe). The 55 km diameter lunar crater Cassegrain, located to the south east of the larger crater Lebedev on the far side of the Moon and seen here immediately to the lower right of image centre, is named in his honour.
Today is the anniversary of the birth, at Weil der Stadt in south-west Germany on 27 Dec 1571, of the astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler. He is probably best remembered today for his three fundamental laws of planetary motion, which can be said to have established our modern view of the Solar System and paved the way for Isaac Newton. The 32 km diameter lunar crater Kepler, located between Oceanus Procellarum to the west and Mare Insularum to the east, is named in his honour. Credit: societyforthehistoryofastronomy.com
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