Marking an anniversary: Tobias Mayer

20 Feb 2012

Today is the 250th anniversary of the death of Tobias Mayer, the man who was posthumously rewarded for his important work on lunar theory by the Board of Longitude (or, more accurately, his wife was paid to hand over Mayer's work). The long story of his dealings with the Board, particularly as a foreigner, will have to wait for another post, but given the attention we gave to Maskelyne on his anniversary last year, it seems right to mark Mayer today. Fortunately, over at Renaissance Mathematicius, Thony Christie has done our work for us. So please do go and read his post: How far the moon?