Famous Astronomers

Name:	Warren de La Rue
Born:	18th January 1815; Guernsey, Channel Islands, United Kingdom.
Died:	19th April 1889; London, England, United Kingdom
Nationality:	Channel Islands
Fame:	Early Photographs of Moon, Sun and Planets. Development of the 'Kew' Photoheliograph.


	Quote:	"Nature's laws must be obeyed, and the period of decline begins, and goes on with accelerated rapidity."

	Biography:	Warren de La Rue was born the 18th January 1815 on the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands, the son of Thomas de La Rue, who owned a stationers company of the same name in London. After completing his education in Paris he joined his father’s company, but it was Science in which he was really interested and where his talents truly lay. As a consequence he devoted his spare time to conducting research in areas of chemistry and electricity, publishing several papers during the years 1836 and 1848. In 1850 he became interested in Astronomy constructing a 13” reflector which he erected at his small garden in Canonbury, London. His first attempt at astrophotography came a year later when he attempted to image the Moon in 1852. The resulting image was a great success, made even more remarkable that he was the first to make use of Scott Archer’s newly invented Wet Collodian process. The quality of his lunar photographs increased greatly after he added a clockwork drive to his telescope to keep track of the motion of the Moon. His lunar photographs remained unsurpassed until those of Lewis Rutherfurd of 1865. In 1854 De La Rue turned all energy into the subject for which he best remembered to this day – Solar Photography. For it was in April of 1854 that Sir John Herschel wrote a letter to the Royal Society urging for the need to take daily photographs of the Sun. Warren de La rue was given the task of administering the subsequent grant for the construction of an instrument to take Solar photographs. He produced a design for what later became known as a photoheliograph, and commissioned the famous instrument maker Andrew Ross to construct it. The instrument was completed in 1857 and was later taken to Kew Observatory, where it took its first picture of the Sun in the March of 1858. It was a further two years before a number of technical difficulties were overcome, and in particular getting the shutter speed sufficiently fast to take the short exposures necessary. In 1860 De la rue took the Kew Photoheliograph to Rivabellosa in Northern Spain to photograph the total Solar Eclipse of July 18th. The resulting images ended the debate as to whether prominences and red flares were atmospheric effects or actual solar events. Two years later he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical society for his work on Astrophotography. In 1873 Warren de Rue retired from active Astronomical Research, donating his telescopes and equipment to the University of Oxford. He died on the 19th April 1889 in London

	Achievements:	Warren de La rue was probably the greatest astrophotographer of his age, who did his finest work before the likes of Henry Draper, Isaac Roberts, Andrew Common and Edward Emerson Barnard made their great contributions. His earliest success was not in astrophotography but electricity , when in 1840 he enclosed a platinum coil in a vacuum and passed an electric current through it, thus creating the first electric light bulb – nearly 40 years before that of Thomas Edison. It was in Lunar Photography that he first made his name, producing images of the Moon far better than the early attempts of John William Draper, William Bond and John Whipple. The images he obtained in the years 1852-1854 were not bettered until those taken by Lewis Morris Rutherfurd in 1865. His greatest contribution to astrophotography was undoubtedly his work on the so called Kew Photoheliograph. This was the first telescope designed specifically for taking images of the Sun. It was the basis for all subsequent Photoheliographs, and in particular those made by John Henry Dallmeyer, who was employed by Andrew Ross & Co. of London. When you are taking pictures of the Sun, please think of Warren de La Rue, and remember how lucky you are not to have to release your webcam shutter with a burning candle



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