Smyth, Charles Piazzi (1819-01-03 - 1900-02-21)

Charles Piazzi Smyth was born at Naples, Italy, on 3 January 1819. His godfather, from whom he received his middle name, was the Sicilian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi. Smyth was educated at Bedford Grammar School. He left school at the age of sixteen to become assistant to Thomas Maclear, HM astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope. At the tender age of twenty-seven, he was appointed Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. He was Astronomer Royal for Scotland from 1846 to 1888. He is best known for his many innovations in astronomy and his pyramidological and metrological studies of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Smyth died at his home on 21 February 1900.