Edmond Halley (1656 – 1742) was a prominent astronomer and mathematician who is best known today as the calculator of the orbit of Halley’s Comet. He made a lesser known but more significant contribution to science when he helped to arrange and the finance the publication of Isaac Newton’s Principia.
Like many scientists of his day Halley was born into a wealthy family, where he was able to obtain a private home tutor before he entered school. He ending up enrolling in Queens College at Oxford where he came under the tutelage of John Flamsteed, The United Kingdom’s first Astronomer Royal. Roughly 45 years later Halley would succeed Flamsteed to become the UK’s second Astronomer Royal.
Halley earned his scientific reputation early in life by cataloging and publishing a star catalog of the Southern Hemisphere, earning him election to the Royal Society at the age of 22. His personal wealthy and reputation allowed him to travel often where he would make many observations a variety topics such as winds, comets, planets, and magnetism.