English astronomer, mathematician, geophysicist, meteorologist and physicist (1656–1742)
He predicted a comet's return sixteen years after his own death, and got it right — the first proof that something beyond the planets could orbit the Sun on a schedule.
Halley built an observatory on Saint Helena in 1676–77 and catalogued the southern stars, recording Mercury's transit across the Sun and realizing Venus could be used to measure the solar system's true scale. Back in England, made a fellow of the Royal Society with the king's help, he bankrolled and pushed Isaac Newton to publish the Principia Mathematica in 1687. From his observations in September 1682, Halley used Newton's gravity to calculate that the comet would return every 75 or 76 years — he published the periodicity in 1705. The comet came back on schedule in 1758, sixteen years after…
Sourced, dated quotes from Edmond Halley
So that 'tis to the Greeks themselves as the Inventors (and especially to the Great Hipparchus) that we owe this Astronomy, which is now improv'd to such a Heigth.
Next to Ticho, came the Sagacious Kepler.
Wherefore (following the Steps of so Great a Man) I have attempted to bring the same Method to Arithmetical Calculation; and that with desired Success.
The Astreonomical Elements of the Motions in a Parabolick Orb of all the Comets that have been hitherto duly obferv'd.
A General Table for Calculating the Motions of Comets in a Parabolical Orbit.
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