Richard Hodgson (publisher)

{{Short description|English publisher and astronomer (1804–1872)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}

{{Use British English|date=July 2016}}

Richard Hodgson (1804, in Wimpole Street, Marylebone, Central London – 4 May 1872, in Chingford, Essex) was an English publisher and astronomer.

Educated at Lewes, Hodgson worked for some years at a banking-house in Lombard Street. In 1834 he joined Boys & Graves to form Hodgson, Boys & Graves.[http://ww.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no2009005493/ Hodgson, Boys & Graves, WorldCat Identities] In 1836 he formed with Henry Graves the publishing company Hodgson & Graves.[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp64391/hodgson--graves National Portrait Gallery, Hodgson & Graves] In 1839 their company founded The Art Journal. In 1841 Hodgson retired from publishing to work on daguerrotypy. In the late 1840s he created the Hawkwood estate.[http://openplaques.org/plaques/9665 Hawkwood Lodge and Richard Hodgson plaque] After a number of years of achieving considerable success in daguerrotypy, he worked on telescopic and microscopic observations.

According to his obituary in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society:{{cite journal|title=Obituary: Richard Hodgson|journal=MNRAS|date=February 1873|volume=33|pages=199|bibcode=1873MNRAS..33..190.|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015065215124;view=1up;seq=223|doi=10.1093/mnras/33.4.189a|doi-access=free}}

{{quotation|In 1852 he built an observatory at Claybury, in Essex, in which a 6-inch refractor was mounted equatorially. This was afterward moved to Hawkwood, and a transit-room added, which now contains the 4-inch instrument formerly in the possession of Dr. Lee of Hartwell. In 1854 he designed the diagonal eye-piece for observing the whole of the Sun's disc without contraction of the aperture of the object-glass, a description of which appeared in the Monthly Notices of that year.{{cite journal |last1=Hodgson |first1=R. |title=Description of an Eye-piece for Observing the Sun |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |date=December 1854 |volume=15 |issue=2 |page=45 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101081655357&seq=631}} For many years he was a constant observer of the Sun, and made a series of drawings of many solar spots. Whilst so engaged, at 11.20 A.M. on the 1st of September 1859,{{cite journal |last1=Hodgson |first1=R. |title=On a curious Appearance seen in the Sun |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |date=November 1859 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=15–16 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101081655332&view=1up&seq=359}} he was fortunate in witnessing the remarkable outbreak in a large spot which was simultaneously observed by Mr. Carrington at Redhill.}}

The geomagnetic storm they observed is now known as the Carrington Event, which spurred the study of space weather.{{cite journal |last1=Crockett |first1=Christopher |title=Are we ready? Understanding just how big solar flares can get |journal=Knowable Magazine |date=September 17, 2021 |doi=10.1146/knowable-091721-1 |url=https://knowablemagazine.org/article/physical-world/2021/understanding-just-how-big-solar-flares-can-get |access-date=30 September 2021|doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Hudson |first1=Hugh S. |title=Carrington Events |journal=Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics |date=2021 |volume=59 |pages=445-477 |doi=10.1146/annurev-astro-112420-023324 |url=https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-astro-112420-023324 |access-date=30 September 2021|doi-access=free }}

Hodgson was made in 1848 a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and in 1849 a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society.