John Pond

John Pond (born 1767, London, England—died September 7, 1836, Blackheath, Kent) was the sixth astronomer royal of England, who organized the Royal Greenwich Observatory to an efficiency that made possible a degree of observational precision never before achieved. Pond was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1807 and served from 1811 to 1835 as astronomer royal. During Pond’s term, obsolete and worn-out instruments at Greenwich were replaced and the staff increased from one...