John Goodricke

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John Goodricke (September 17 1764 – April 20 1786) was an amateur astronomer. He was born in Groningen in the Netherlands, but lived most of his life in England. He was named after, and was a grandson of, Sir John Goodricke.

He is best known for his observations of the variable star Algol (Beta Persei) in 1782. Although several stars were already known to vary in apparent magnitude, Goodricke was the first to propose a mechanism that could account for this. He suggested that Algol is what is now known as an eclipsing binary. He presented his findings to the Royal Society in May 1783, and for this work, the Society awarded him the Copley Medal for that year. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on April 16 1786. He never learned of this honour, as he died four days later, probably from pneumonia.

Goodricke was profoundly deaf through most of his life, due to scarlet fever in early childhood. His parents sent him to Braidwood's Academy, a school for the deaf in Edinburgh in Scotland, and then, in 1778, to the Warrington Academy. After leaving the Academy, he returned to live with his parents in York. There, he became friends with Edward Pigott, whose father Nathaniel Pigott had built a sophisticated private observatory. Edward was already interested in variable stars, and he gave Goodricke a list of those that he thought were worthy of observation.

Between October 2005 and March 2006, Sean Ellingham and James Valner from the University of York undertook a project to find the position of Goodricke's observatory using the data he recorded. A study by Sidney Melmore in 1949 showed that he worked from Treasurer's House, near York Minster Cathedral. By recreating his observations, the two students were able to conclude that he had observed from the Eastern-most window of the second floor, looking south towards the Minster.

Goodricke College at the University of York is named after Goodricke.

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