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Richard Hinckley Allen

 

 
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Richard Hinckley Allen
 
 
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Richard Hinckley Allen (1838, Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York

Buffalo , is the second largest city in the state of New York. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River, Buffalo is the principal city of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area and the county seat of Erie County, New York....
—1908, Northampton, Massachusetts
Northampton, Massachusetts

Northampton is a city in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 28,978 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Hampshire County....
) was a gifted polymath
Polymath

A polymath is a person whose knowledge is not restricted to one subject area. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable....
 and amateur
Amateur

An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without formal training or pay. Conversely, an expert is generally considered a person with extensive knowledge, Aptitude, and/or training in a particular area of study, while a professional is someone who also makes a living from it....
 naturalist
Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals....
; his wide range of interests caused his friends to nickname him "the walking encyclopedia." His youthful ambition to pursue astronomy
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
 was thwarted by poor eyesight, and he became a moderately successful businessman instead. He continued in scientific pursuits as a hobby
Hobby

A hobby is a leisure recreational pursuit....
 for the rest of his life.

He is best remembered for a work called Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning
Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning

Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning is a book written by Richard Hinckley Allen. First published in 1899 as Star-Names and Their Meanings, this work collected the origins of the names of stars and constellations from a panoply of sources, some primary but most secondary; also telling briefly the various myths and folklore connected wit...
, originally published in 1899 as Star-Names and Their Meanings.






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Richard Hinckley Allen (1838, Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York

Buffalo , is the second largest city in the state of New York. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River, Buffalo is the principal city of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area and the county seat of Erie County, New York....
—1908, Northampton, Massachusetts
Northampton, Massachusetts

Northampton is a city in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 28,978 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Hampshire County....
) was a gifted polymath
Polymath

A polymath is a person whose knowledge is not restricted to one subject area. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable....
 and amateur
Amateur

An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without formal training or pay. Conversely, an expert is generally considered a person with extensive knowledge, Aptitude, and/or training in a particular area of study, while a professional is someone who also makes a living from it....
 naturalist
Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals....
; his wide range of interests caused his friends to nickname him "the walking encyclopedia." His youthful ambition to pursue astronomy
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
 was thwarted by poor eyesight, and he became a moderately successful businessman instead. He continued in scientific pursuits as a hobby
Hobby

A hobby is a leisure recreational pursuit....
 for the rest of his life.

He is best remembered for a work called Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning
Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning

Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning is a book written by Richard Hinckley Allen. First published in 1899 as Star-Names and Their Meanings, this work collected the origins of the names of stars and constellations from a panoply of sources, some primary but most secondary; also telling briefly the various myths and folklore connected wit...
, originally published in 1899 as Star-Names and Their Meanings. This work was based on his extensive research about the names of the stars and constellations in Arabic, Greco-Roman, Chinese
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, and many other astronomical traditions
History of astronomy

Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to ancient history, with its origins in the Religion, mythological, and astrological practices of pre-history: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy, and not completely disentangled from it until a few centuries...
. It is still considered one of the major works on the history of astronomical nomenclature
Astronomical naming conventions

In ancient times, only the Sun and Moon, a few hundred stars and the most easily visible planets had names. Over the last few hundred years, the number of identified astronomical objects has risen from hundreds to over a billion, and more are discovered every year....
 and is often consulted as a resource on star names
List of traditional star names

This is a list of traditional names for stars, mostly derived from Arabic and Latin. See also the list of stars by constellation, which gives variant names, derivations, and magnitudes....
 by amateur if not by professional astronomers.

External links

  • A brief on-line biography can be found here
  • Another summary here