1656-1742

English Astronomer and Physicist

Edmond Halley is best known for predicting the return of the comet that today bears his name and for the instrumental role he played in the publication of Isaac Newton's Principia.

Halley was born at Haggerton, near London, in late 1656 to a wealthy landowner and soapmaker. He attended St. Paul's School before matriculating at Queen's College, Oxford (1673). An experienced astronomical observer even before entering Oxford, Halley began assisting the Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed (1646-1719).

Leaving Oxford, Halley traveled to the island of St. Helena, where he established the southern hemisphere's first observatory and proceeded with the first telescopic mapping of the southern skies. Upon returning to England he published his Catalogus Stellarum Australium (1678) which gained him election to the Royal Society at age 22.

Also while at St. Helena he observed the transit of Mercury and realized that simultaneous measurements...