NEWCOMB, SIMON

(b. March 12, 1835, Wallace, Nova Scotiad. July 11, 1909, Washington, D.C.), Canadian-born American astronomer and mathematician who prepared ephemeridestables of computed places of celestial bodies over a period of timeand tables of astronomical constants. Additional reading Newcomb's major astronomical works include Popular Astronomy (1878, reissued 1910), The Stars (1901), Astronomy for Everybody: A Popular Exposition of the Wonders of the Heavens (1902, reissued 1942), and A Compendium of Spherical Astronomy . . . (1906, reprinted 1960). An autobiography, The Reminiscences of an Astronomer, was published in 1903. Raymond Clare Archibald, Simon Newcomb, 18351909: Bibliography of His Life and Work, Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, 17:1969 (1924), includes more than 500 titles.