1. Aloysius Cortie served as director of the Stonyhurst College Observatory and contributed to the study of the Sun, including through observing solar eclipses.
17 Facts About Aloysius Cortie
1. 2.
Aloysius Cortie was born in London into a Catholic family.
3.
Aloysius Cortie was sent to study at the Catholic Stonyhurst College in Lancashire.
4.
Aloysius Cortie later taught mathematics and science at Stonyhurst, before training for the priesthood at St Beuno's College in North Wales, leading to his ordination in 1892.
5.
Aloysius Cortie had an interest in music and served as the college's director of music.
6.
Aloysius Cortie developed influenza in 1925, and his health deteriorated leading to his death some weeks later.
7.
Aloysius Cortie studied sunspots, making daily observations over many years from Stonyhurst whenever weather permitted.
8.
Aloysius Cortie studied the correlation between magnetic storms on the Earth and sunspots, eventually arguing that effects produced by the Sun, and associated with sunspots, extended outwards from the Sun in various directions and sometimes caused terrestrial magnetic storms.
9.
Aloysius Cortie specialised in observing solar eclipses and took part in a number of eclipse expeditions.
10.
Aloysius Cortie travelled to Spain in 1905, to Tonga in 1911, and to Sweden in 1914.
11.
Aloysius Cortie examined their spectra and measured the spectral lines that were visible.
12.
Aloysius Cortie became a prominent member of the British astronomical community.
13.
Aloysius Cortie acted as director of the Stonyhurst College Observatory from the death of Walter Sidgreaves in 1919 until his own death in 1925.
14.
Aloysius Cortie became director of the Solar Section of the British Astronomical Association following the death of Elizabeth Brown in 1899, and served until 1910.
15.
Aloysius Cortie was president of the Manchester Astronomical Society from 1911 to 1925.
16.
Aloysius Cortie was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1891, and a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society in 1924.
17.
Aloysius Cortie was appointed an associate of the Astronomical Society of Wales, a form of honorary membership.