Half-Hours with the Stars a Plain and Easy Guide to the Knowledge of the Constellations

by Richard A. Proctor

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52 pages, Paperback

Published February 24, 2012

About the author

Richard Anthony Proctor (23 March 1837 in Chelsea, London – 12 September 1888) was an English astronomer.

He is best remembered for having produced one of the earliest maps of Mars in 1867 from 27 drawings by the English observer William Rutter Dawes.

His map was later superseded by those of Giovanni Schiaparelli and Eugène Antoniadi and his nomenclature was dropped (for instance, his "Kaiser Sea" became Syrtis Major Planum).

He used old drawings of Mars dating back to 1666 to try to determine the sidereal day of Mars. His final estimate, in 1873, was 24h 37m 22.713s, reasonably close to the modern value of 24h 37m 22.663s. Nevertheless, Frederik Kaiser's value of 24h 37m 22.622s is closer.

A crater on Mars is named after Proctor.