ENDING HIS DAYS LIKE LONE STAR

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3308, 30 March 1926, Page 9

ENDING HIS DAYS LIKE LONE STAR

Noted Astronomer’s Sacrifices to Science

SPENT YEARS IN STUDYING HEAVENS

[By Electric Cable —Copyright] [Aust. and N.Z. Cable Association

(Received Monday, 7.45 p.m.) LONDON, March 29

The “Daily Chronicle” publishes a pathetic story of the sacrifices that Mr William Denning has made in the interests of science. He is now seven-ty-eight and lives alon e in Bristol on a small Civil list pension (£150). He is only able to eat liquid food owing to hardships endured in his earlier life, when for many years he spent his nights in the garden observing the stars, even when the snow was on the ground. He often spent the following day in his study, chocking his observations. The face of the heavens became so familiar that a glance of the naked eye was sufficient to toll whether there was any alteration in the position of the larger stars, and so he was able to make his famous discovery of the new star Cygnus (August 20, 1920). Mr Denning’s observations recently proved that the temperature fifty miles above the earth was tropical.