Samuel Arthur Saunder

{{Short description|British mathematician and selenographer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Samuel Arthur Saunder (1852 – December 8, 1912) was a British mathematician and selenographer who taught at Wellington College, Berkshire. In 1894 he became a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and in 1908 he was made Gresham Professor of Astronomy giving public lectures on the subject.{{citation|title=Mr. S. A. Saunder|journal=Nature|volume=90|issue=2250|date=December 12, 1912|pages=415–416|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KI9FAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA415|doi=10.1038/090415a0|bibcode=1912Natur..90..415.|doi-access=free}}.

Saunder was one of the first to use photography of the Moon to measure and triangulate its features.{{citation|title=Planetary Mapping|volume=6|series=Cambridge Planetary Science|editor1-first=Ronald|editor1-last=Greeley|editor2-first=Raymond M.|editor2-last=Batson|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2007|isbn=9780521033732|contribution=Geodetic control|first=M. E.|last=Davies|pages=141–168}}. See in particular [https://books.google.com/books?id=ztodv66A1VsC&pg=PA143 p. 143]. He was also responsible for pointing out the confused state of lunar nomenclature at the beginning of the 20th century, and initiating the process of standardizing the names of lunar features.{{citation|title=Mapping and Naming the Moon: A History of Lunar Cartography and Nomenclature|first=Ewen A.|last=Whitaker|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2003|isbn=9780521544146|page=153|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aV1i27jDYL8C&pg=PA153}}. The crater Saunder on the Moon was named after him in 1935.{{citation|title=The Solar System and the Constellations: A Guidebook|first=Clifford N.|last=Anderson|publisher=Vantage Press|date=1964|quote=A large ring to the west [sic] of Hipparchus, named for an English selenographer Samuel A. Saunder (1852-1912)}}.[http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/5342 Saunder], Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, USGS, retrieved 2014-11-13.