Simon Newcomb: America's Unofficial Astronomer Royal

Abstract

This book introduced me to a commanding figure in American science from the late nineteenth century: Simon Newcomb. Newcomb has been called the nineteenth‐century equivalent of Carl Sagan and Albert Einstein. He rose from humble beginnings to be the preeminent American astronomer of his generation. He made basic, far‐reaching, and enduring contributions to positional astronomy and planetary dynamics.