Charles Michie Smith CIE FRSE¹

Parents:

• Birth*: Charles Michie Smith CIE FRSE was born on 13 July 1854 at Keig, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, .²
• He was the son of William Pirie Smith and Jane Robertson.
• (Deceased) Death*: Charles Michie Smith CIE FRSE died on 27 September 1922 at Kodaikanal, India, , at age 68.²
• Obituary: The obituary of Charles Michie Smith CIE FRSE was was published after 27 September 1922. Professor Charles Michie Smith was born on 1854 July 13, at Keig, Aberdeen, and was educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh. After taking his B.Sc. degree in 1876 he was appointed the same year Professor of Physics at the Christian College in Madras. Fifteen years later he succeeded Pogson as Government Astronomer in Madras. Here he found a great deal to do in making up arrears in the reduction of observations, but in 1899 he was able to publish the New Madras General Catalogue of 5303 stars containing the results of meridian observations made under Pogson’s directions in the years 1862 to 1887. Amongst other purposes, this catalogue was intended to supply the places of stars between North Polar Distances 130? and 150? as standard stars for the zones of the southern survey in extension of Argelander’s great work.
  Michie Smith was also much interested in Meteors, and he published the record of those observed at Madras between '1861 and 1890. In 1899 when the expected 33-year Leonid shower failed, through the mains warm having been diverted by the disturbing action of Jupiter, he nevertheless with the help of an assistant recorded a considerable number of fine meteors at the recently established hill station at Kodaikánal. Eighty-five Leonids were observed between November 13 and 16, of which one was rated equal in brightness to Venus, and six others were estimated as being of the 1st magnitude. A number of meteors was recorded at the Madras Observatory at the same time.
  In 1894 Michie Smith observed the annular eclipse of the sun, and at the total eclipse of 1898 he secured at Sahdol, in Rewa State, some particularly fine large-scale photographs taken with a 40-footlens.
  But, undoubtedly, one of the outstanding events of his career was the establishment in the face of certain difficulties of the observatory on the hills at Kodaikánal in 1899. Here systematic work was at once begun in seismology and meteorology, and as soon as the necessary instruments could be erected — in the study of sun-spots, solar photography, prominences, and sun-spot spectra. The spectrograph was ready for use at the end of 1900, and in 1904 a spectroheliography was installed, consisting of a 12-inch triple achromatic lens by Cooke & Sons of 20 feet focal length, fed by a Foucault siderostat with an 18-inch mirror, and the spectroheliography proper. The design of the latter was that of Professor Hale, in which the image of the sun and the camera remain stationary, while the collimating lens with the prisms and slits are moved across at right angles to the optical axis. Despite difficulties arising from the general unsteadiness of the solar image except during a comparatively short time in the morning, work of the highest value in the study of solar physics has been achieved at this observatory. From 1899 to the time of his retirement in 1911, when he was succeeded by Mr. John Evershed, Michie Smith field the office of Director of both the Kodaikánal and Madras Observatories.
  A man of wide scientific knowledge, he had interests outside astronomy, and he communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh a number of important papers dealing with the determination of surface tension by the measurement of ripples, atmospheric electricity, various absorption spectra, and other matters. He died in India on 1922 Sept. 27. He was elected a Fellow of the Society on 1894 May 9.³