Editing William Rutter Dawes

{{Short description|British astronomer (1799–1868)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2016}}
{{other people|William Dawes}}
{{Infobox scientist |name = William Rutter Dawes
 |image             = Dawes William Rutter.jpg
 |image_size       = 150px
 |caption           = A photograph, c. 1863
 |birth_date        = {{birth date|1799|3|19|df=yes}} 
 |birth_place       = [[City of London]], [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]
 |death_date        = {{death date and age|1868|2|15|1799|3|19|df=yes}}
 |death_place       =
 |residence         =
 |citizenship       = [[England|English]] 
 |nationality       =
 |ethnicity         =
 |field             = [[Astronomy]]
 |work_institutions =
 |alma_mater        =
 |doctoral_advisor  =
 |doctoral_students =
 |known_for         =
 |author_abbrev_bot =
 |author_abbrev_zoo =
 |influences        =
 |influenced        =
 |prizes            = [[Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society]] {{small|(1855)}}
 |footnotes         =
 |signature         = }}

'''William Rutter Dawes''' (19 March 1799 – 15 February 1868) was an [[England|English]] [[astronomer]].

==Biography==
Dawes was born at [[Christ's Hospital]]<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0029//0000116.000.html |title = MNRAS..29 Page 116}}</ref> then in the [[City of London]] (it moved to [[Horsham District|Horsham]], [[West Sussex]] in 1902),<ref>[https://www.chmuseum.org.uk/ Christ's Hospital Museum] Retrieved 15 October 2021</ref> the son of [[William Dawes (British Marines officer)|William Dawes]], also an astronomer, and Judith Rutter.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers |last=Hockey |first=Thomas |date=2009 |publisher=[[Springer Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-387-31022-0 |accessdate=22 August 2012 |url=http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/58344.html}}</ref> He qualified as a doctor in 1825. On 29 October 1828 he was ordained pastor at an Independent chapel in Burscough Street, [[Ormskirk]], Lancashire,<ref name="nightingale">Nightingale, Benjamin, ''Lancashire nonconformity, or, Sketches, historical & descriptive, of the Congregational and old Presbyterian churches in the county''. John Heywood, 1890-1893, p[https://archive.org/details/lancashirenoncon04nighuoft/page/200/mode/2up 200-2]</ref> formerly part of a silk factory.<ref name="nightingale" /> A new chapel, in Chapel Street, was opened in 1834.<ref name="nightingale" /> Dawes resigned as pastor in December 1837 due to ill health.<ref name="nightingale" /> When, in 1843, the chapel got into financial difficulties due to the debt owing after its construction, Dawes came to their aid.<ref name="nightingale" />

==Astronomy==

[[File:The Thorrowgood telescope - geograph.org.uk - 2358429.jpg|thumb|left|The Thorrowgood Telescope at Cambridge Observatory]] 
Dawes made extensive measurements of [[double star]]s as well as observations of [[planet]]s.  He was a friend of [[William Lassell]]. He was nicknamed "eagle eyed".<ref>Proctor, R A, "Canals on the Planet Mars", ''The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser'', 14 April, 1882, p7, column 7.</ref>  He set up his private observatory at his home, Hopefield House, built 1856-7<ref>Sharp, Steve, with Wellby, Michael, "Hopefield House, Station Rd and the Rev Dr WR Dawes", ''The Haddenham Chronicles'', No 2, Autumn 2006, Haddenham Museum Trust, pp40-2</ref> in [[Haddenham, Buckinghamshire]].  One of his telescopes, an eight-inch (200mm) aperture refractor by [[Thomas Cooke (machinist)|Cooke]], survives at the [[Cambridge Observatory]], now part of the [[Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge|Institute of Astronomy]] where it is known as the Thorrowgood Telescope.<ref>[https://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/about/thorrowgood.telescope Institute of Astronomy - Thorrowgood Telescope]</ref>

[[File:Proctor Richard Anthony Other Worlds Mars Chart 1896.jpg|thumb|A Chart of Mars Laid down on the Stereographic Projection by R A Proctor. From: ''Other Worlds Than Ours'', 1896.]]
He made extensive drawings of [[Mars]] during its 1864 [[astronomical opposition|opposition]].  In 1867, [[Richard Anthony Proctor]] made a map of Mars based on these drawings. Proctor named two features after Dawes.<ref>	
Proctor, R A, ''Other worlds than ours; the plurality of worlds studied under the light of recent scientific researches'', 1896, [https://archive.org/details/otherworldsthano00proc_0/page/n115/mode/2up opp p105]</ref>

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1830 and a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1865, for his astronomical work.<ref name="frs">[https://catalogues.royalsociety.org/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=EC%2f1865%2f03 Dawes, William Rutter: certificate of election to the Royal Society]</ref> Proposers for his Royal Society Fellowship included [[George Biddell Airy|G B Airy]] and  [[John Herschel|J F W Herschel]].<ref name="frs" />

==Awards==

He won the [[Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society]] in 1855.<ref>[https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/15/4/148/2604625 Address delivered by the President, G. B. Airy, Esq. F.R.S., Astronomer Royal, on presenting the Medal of the Society to the Rev. William Rutter Dawes]</ref>

==Legacy==

[[Dawes (lunar crater)|Dawes]]<ref>[https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/1430 Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Moon - Dawes - crater]</ref> [[Impact crater|crater]]s on the [[Moon]] and [[Dawes (Martian crater)|Dawes]]<ref>[https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/1431 Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Mars - Dawes - crater]</ref>  crater on Mars are named after him, as is a gap within [[Saturn]]'s [[Rings of Saturn#Structures within the C Ring|C Ring]],<ref>[https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/Rings#saturn Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Ring and Ring Gap Nomenclature - Saturn]</ref> formerly labelled 1.495 R<sub>S</sub>.<ref>Nicholson, Philip D. et al, (October 2014) "Noncircular features in Saturn’s rings II: The C ring", ''Icarus'', Volume 241, p383 ("8. Dawes gap and embedded ringlet")</ref>

An [[optics|optical]] phenomenon, the [[Dawes limit]], is named after him.

==Family==

Dawes married twice. His first wife was Mary Scott née Egerton (1764-1840). They married on  13 January 1824 at Haddenham, Buckinghamshire.<ref>Buckinghamshire Marriage Index, findmypast (subscription required)</ref> She was the widow of his tutor, [[Thomas Scott (commentator)|Thomas Scott]].<ref name="odnb" /> On 28 July 1842 Dawes married Ann Welsby née Coupland (1805-1860).<ref name="odnb">Marriott, R A, [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/7337 Dawes, William Rutter (1799–1868)] ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (via libraries)</ref> She was the widow of Ormskirk solicitor John Welsby (1800-1839)<ref name="odnb" /> whom she had married on 16 January 1824.<ref>England Marriages 1538-1973, findmypast (subscription required)</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
!colspan=2 | William Rutter Dawes' grave, St Mary's Church, Haddenham, Buckinghamshire.
|-
| <poem><div style="text-align: center;">REV DR WILLIAM RUTTER DAWES FRAS FRS
BORN 19 MAR 1799 DIED 15 FEB 1868
ASTRONOMER
HE MARRIED TWO WIDOWS MRS THOMAS SCOTT AND MRS JOHN WELSBY AND SURVIVED THEM BOTH
HE BUILT HOPEFIELD IN 1857 AND LIVED THERE UNTIL HIS DEATH</div></poem> || |[[File:William Rutter Dawes grave Haddenham Buckinghamshire.jpg|thumb]]
|}

== Selected writings ==

* {{cite book | author = Dawes, William Rutter | title = The Stars in Six Maps, on the Gnomonic Projection | date = 1849 | publisher = C. Knight | bibcode = 1849ssmg.book.....D }}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==

* {{cite book | author = Ashbrook, Joseph | title = The Astronomical Scrapbook | date = 1984 | publisher = Sky Publishing | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | pages = 360–365 }}  (Adapted from ''Sky & Telescope'', July 1973, page 27)
* {{DSB
|first=Michael
|last=Hoskin
|title=Dawes, William Rutter 
|volume=3
|pages=605–606
}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* {{cite DNB|author=Clerke, Agnes Mary|authorlink=Agnes Mary Clerke|wstitle=Dawes, William Rutter|volume=14|pages=217–218}}
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0015//0000148.000.html Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1855, '''15''', 148] - Awarding of RAS gold medal
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0029//0000116.000.html Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1869, '''29''', 116] - Obituary
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/Obs../0036//0000419.000.html ''The Observatory'', 1913, '''36''', 419] - Brief biography
* McKim, R., Marriott, R. A., "[https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/#abs/1988JBAA...98..294M/abstract Dawes' Observations Of Mars, 1864-65]", ''Journal of the British Astronomical Association'', vol.98, no.6, p.294-300, October 1988. 

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawes, William Rutter}}
[[Category:1799 births]]
[[Category:1868 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century British astronomers]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]