Person
Baldwin, Joseph Mason (1878 - 1945)
Baldwin, Joseph Mason Portrait
Details
- Born
- 9 December 1878
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia - Died
- 6 July 1945
Southport, Queensland, Australia - Occupation
- Astronomer
Summary
Joseph Baldwin was an astronomer who became Chief Assistant at the Melbourne Observatory in 1908, and held the office of Director of the Observatory and Victorian Government Astronomer for 23 years to 1943. During this time the Observatory's main activity was observation of the Melbourne zone for the International Astrographic Catalogue, published in multiple volumes between 1926 and 1963. Baldwin was responsible for setting up the geophysical observatory at Toolangi, recording the exact time for the time-signal service, and magnetic observations. On the closure of the Melbourne observatory in 1944 Baldwin moved to the Mount Stromlo Observatory in the Australian Capital Territory.
Details
Tutor, Trinity College, teacher, Wesley College, lecturer, Ballarat School of Mines, research for Thomas Lyle, University of Melbourne 1904-05.
Chronology
- 1900
- Education - BA, University of Melbourne
- 1901
- Education - BSc, University of Melbourne
- 1902
- Education - MA, University of Melbourne
- 1906 - 1908
- Award - 1851 Exhibition scholarship
- 1908
- Career position - Research assistant, Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope and Potsdam Observatory, Germany
- 1908 - 1915
- Career position - Chief assistant, Melbourne Observatory
- 1913
- Education - DSc, University of Melbourne
- 1914
- Award - David Syme Research Prize, University of Melbourne
- 1915 - 1920
- Career position - Acting Director, Melbourne Observatory
- 1919 -
- Career position - Foundation Councillor (Astronomy), Australian National Research Council
- 1920 - 1943
- Career position - Government Astronomer and Director, Melbourne Observatory
- 1920 - 1945
- Career position - Member of Council, Royal Society of Victoria
- 1922
- Career event - Leader, solar eclipse expedition, Goondiwindi, Queensland
- 1925 - 1926
- Career position - President, Royal Society of Victoria
- 1930
- Career position - President, Section A (Astronomy, Mathematics and Physics), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science
- 1943 - 1944
- Career position - Officer in charge of time service, Commonwealth Solar Observatory, Mount Stromlo
- 1944
- Life event - Retired
Related entries
Colleague
Archival resources
Private hands (Harley, J.)
- Joseph Mason Baldwin - Records, 1878 - 1945; Private hands (Harley, J.). Details
Published resources
Book Sections
- Simon, Philipp, 'Baldwin, Joseph Mason (1878-1945), astronomer' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds, vol. 7 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1979), pp. 157-158. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070158b.htm. Details
Journal Articles
- 'Obituary: Joseph Mason Baldwin', Australian Journal of Science, 8 (2-3) (1945), 72-73. Details
- Baldwin, J., 'Comet observations made in 1914 and 1915 at the Melbourne Observatory', Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 77 (1917), 474-7. Details
- Simon, P., 'Joseph Mason Baldwin', Journal of the Astronomical Society of Victoria, 36 (3) (1983), 36-38. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6285084. Details
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/55429810. Details
- 'Baldwin, Joseph Mason (1878-1945)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1470122. Details
Resource Sections
- 'Baldwin, Joseph Mason', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P001409p.htm. Details
Theses
- Stevenson, T., 'Measuring the stars and observing the less visible: Australia's participation in the Astrographic Catalogue and Carte du Ciel', Thesis, University of Sydney, 2015, 381 pp. Details
See also
- Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_b.html. Details
- Sherratt, Tim; Condé, Anne-Marie, A Wartime Observatory Observed - the Mount Stromlo Community, 1940-1945, Australian Science Archives Project, Canberra, 1994, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/pubs/articles/tps/tps_stromlo_draft.htm. Details
Digital resources
Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023
- Foundation Supporter - Royal Society of Victoria