John Goodricke

John Goodricke (September 17 1764 –  April 20 1786) was an eminent and profoundly deaf amateur astronomer. He was born in Groningen in the Netherlands, but lived most of his life in England. He was named after his grandfather Sir John Goodricke.He is best known for his observations of the variable star Algol (Beta Persei) in 1782. ('Variable' means that the star changes in brightness.) Although several stars were already known to vary in apparent magnitude, Goodricke was the first to propose a mechanism to account for this. He suggested that Algol is what is now known as an eclipsing binary. He presented his findings to the Royal Society in May 1783, and for this work, the Society awarded him the Copley Medal for that year. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on April 16 1786. He never learned of this honour however, as he died four days later, probably from pneumonia.
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