Edmond, or Edmund,
Halley (Born Haggerston,
London,
October 29,
1656 - Died
January 14,
1742) was an
English astronomer,
geophysicist,
mathematician,
meteorologist, and
physicist. He published papers on the
Solar System and
sunspots; whilst an
undergraduate at
The Queens College at Oxford. On leaving Oxford, in
1676, he visited
St Helena where his additions to the
star map[?] earned him comparison with
Tycho Brahe. Halley was the first to successfully predict the return, in
1758, of
Halley's Comet.
Halley was friends with Isaac Newton and helped convince him to write the Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis (1687). In 1720, he was appointed Astronomer Royal, a position which he held until his death.