HALLEY, EDMOND

born Nov. 8, 1656, Haggerston, Shoreditch, near London died Jan. 14, 1742, Greenwich, near London Edmond also spelled Edmund English astronomer and mathematician who was the first to calculate the orbit of a comet later named after him. He is also noted for his role in the publication of Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Additional reading Eugene Fairfield MacPike (ed.), Correspondence and Papers of Edmond Halley (1932), collects contemporary materials. More recent studies include Colin A. Ronan, Edmond Halley: Genius in Eclipse (1969); A. Armitage, Edmond Halley (1966); Peter Lancaster-Brown, Halley & His Comet (1985); and Norman J.W. Thrower (ed.), Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: A Longer View of Newton and Halley (1990).