Joseph Lockyer

Joseph Lockyer (1836-1920), British astronomer, best known for his observations of the sun. Joseph Norman Lockyer was born in Rugby, England, and educated in England and on the Continent. He served as professor of astronomical physics and director of the Solar Physics Observatory at the Royal College of Science from 1890 until 1913, when he became director of the Hill Observatory at Salcombe. Between 1870 and 1905 he directed eight government expeditions to observe total solar eclipses. In 1866 he initiated spectroscopic observation of sunspots; his investigation led to the assumption that the number of sunspots is related to the rainfall on earth. In 1868 Lockyer announced the nature of solar prominences in the chromosphere and discovered a spectroscopic method of observing these prominences. During the same year, with the British chemist Sir Edward Frankland, Lockyer identified and named the element helium in the spectrum of the sun's atmosphere.