Samuel Arthur Saunder

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.^[1]

Saunder was one of the first to use photography of the Moon to measure and triangulate its features.^[2] 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.^[3] The crater Saunder on the Moon was named after him in 1935.^[4][5]

References

1. "Mr. S. A. Saunder", Nature, 90 (2250): 415–416, December 12, 1912, doi:10.1038/090415a0.
2. Davies, M. E. (2007), "Geodetic control", in Greeley, Ronald; Batson, Raymond M., Planetary Mapping, Cambridge Planetary Science, 6, Cambridge University Press, pp. 141–168, ISBN 9780521033732. See in particular p. 143.
3. Whitaker, Ewen A. (2003), Mapping and Naming the Moon: A History of Lunar Cartography and Nomenclature, Cambridge University Press, p. 153, ISBN 9780521544146.
4. Anderson, Clifford N. (1964), The Solar System and the Constellations: A Guidebook, Vantage Press, A large ring to the west [sic] of Hipparchus, named for an English selenographer Samuel A. Saunder (1852-1912).
5. Saunder, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, USGS, retrieved 2014-11-13.