William Frederick Denning

William Frederick Denning (25 November 1848 – 9 June 1931) was a British amateur astronomer who achieved considerable success without formal scientific training.^[1][2][3] He is known for his catalogues of meteor radiants, observations of Jupiter's red spot, and for the discovery of five comets.^[4] Outside astronomy, as a young man, Denning showed prowess at cricket to the extent W G Grace invited him to play for Gloucestershire. However Denning's retiring nature made him decline the offer.^[1]

William Frederick Denning
William Denning celebrated in Punch magazine Vol. 102, 9 April 1892, on the occasion of The Times newspaper commenting on Denning's discovery of a small faint comet on Friday 18 March 1892 at Bishopston, Bristol
Born	(1848-11-25)25 November 1848
Died	9 June 1931(1931-06-09) (aged 82) Bristol, England
Occupation	Accountant

Career

Denning devoted a great deal of time to searching for comets, and discovered five of them, including the periodic comets 72P/Denning–Fujikawa and 489P/Denning. The latter was the last comet discovered on British soil until the discoveries of George Alcock, and its recovery was announced by the Minor Planet Center with MPEC 2024-Q14.

Denning also studied meteors and novae, discovering Nova Cygni 1920 (V476 Cyg). From 1869 Denning held the combined post of secretary and treasurer of the short-lived Observing Astronomical Society.^[5] Denning was elected to the Royal Astronomical Society on 8 June 1877.^[6] He was first elected to the British Astronomical Association on 24 June 1891 and rejoined in 1898, being elected as a member on 16 October of that year.^[7] He directed its Comet Section (1891–1893) and Meteor Section (1899–1900).^[8] He won the Prix Valz of the French Academy of Sciences for 1895.^[9]

During his life, Denning published 1179 articles^[10] in prominent scientific journals including Nature, The Observatory, Astronomische Nachrichten, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Journal des Observateurs, and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.^[11]

Awards and honors

• In 1898, Denning won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.^[2]
• He also won the Donohoe Comet Medal for his July 23, 1890 discovery of a comet.^[12][13]
• Such was his standing in the astronomical community that following his death a memorial tablet was fixed to his house.^[14]
• Crater Denning on the Moon as well as the Martian crater Denning were named after him in 1970 and 1973, respectively.^[15][16]
• Asteroid 71885 Denning, discovered by the Spacewatch program in 2000, was named in his memory.^[4] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 4 October 2009 (M.P.C. 67219).^[17]