Edmund Neville Nevill - Durban 1882 - 1912

1912

A transit of Venus occurred on 8 December 1874 and 6 December 1882. The Transit of Venus Commission set up stations to observe the event. Durban was considered as a possible station but rejected because of tendency to cloudy weather in Natal during December season. Establishing an observatory in Durban was of interest to Harry Escombe, a local politician in the imperial government established by the British regime. David Gill, Astronomer Royal to the Cape, agreed and £350 voted by Corporation of Durban plus £500 by Legislative Council to found an observatory. A Grubb 8 inch aperture equatorial refracting telescope presented by Escombe and a 3 inch transit instrument was purchased by the government. A Dent sidereal clock was lent by the Venus Commission. Gill telegrammed Nevill to offer post of Government Astronomer, and Nevill sailed at 24 hours' notice on 27 October and arrived 27 November 1882.

State of the observatory

Nevill took possession of Observatory 1 December 1882 and found a thick coat of paint covered dome machinery making it immovable, the telescope had been erected prior to dome and had suffered from salt air and moved with difficulty, the polarising solar eyepiece was incompatible with telescope or accessories. The transit instrument was in Cape Town so a telegraph was used to relay time signal from Cape Observatory. Still, observations of the transit (in fine weather conditions) were obtained 5 days later.

Later observatory work

Observations were made to check Moon theory: determination of parallactic inequality, study of effect of limb irregularities on apparent place of Moon, effect of irradiation on apparent diameter; and determination of real libration of Moon. Also weather observations, time service, comets and 'temporary phenomena'. Staff included Nevill, assistant, and later 'four ladies were added as astronomical computers'. Nevill published a major paper on corrections to Hansen's Tables - using 1500 observations of the Moon to derive corrections for arbitrary values assumed by Hansen for coefficients. Nevill proposed two ambitious projects: mathematical investigation of terms of long period resulting from planetary action and the actual calculation of every term of long period exceeding a maximum amplitude of 0.1 arc sec. Lack of library access to Hansen, Poisson and Delaunay hampered progress.

Tidal work

In 1885 for Natal Harbour Board using methods devised by British Association Committee. Tide tables for Natal were produced in 1888. Paul Huges (UK) has researched the letters from Nevill to Darwin on tide observations as part of a larger body of work on the history of tidal theory in the nineteenth century. Nevill's letters to Gill and Darwin are in archives in UK including the Cambridge University archives.

Money problems

In 1887 no funds were available for salaries. 'The greater part of the work of the Observatory would have had to be suspended, had it not been for the zealous assistance of four ladies'. Political changes in the Legislative Assembly occurred throughout this period, and in 1888 an assistant was appointed again, and a manuscript catalogue of the Right Ascensions of zodiacal stars was made. Nevill was elected Fellow of Royal Society in 1888 and Nevill was appointed Government Chemist and Official Assayer for Natal, which included the duty for latter post of acting as pathologist in cases of suspected poisoning.

Later lunar theory work

Observations of Moon at Greenwich compared with Hansen's Tables, with Nevill's corrections leading to new values of elements and new lunar tables prepared. No publication of this work occurred due to lack of funds at Durban. Work was restricted more and more to routine observations and in 1911 the Observatory closed. Nevill returned to Britain and retired in Eastbourne. Most lunar work was superseded by E. W. Brown in a series of 5 memoirs between 1897 and 1905.

Family

In 1894 (at age 45) Nevill married Mabel Grant, one of the 'four ladies' at the observatory.