William Cranch Bond

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William Cranch Bond

1789-1859

American astronomer who, with his son George Bond, discovered Hyperion, the eighth satellite of Saturn, and an inner ring of Saturn in 1848. They also took the first recognizable photographs of astronomical objects in 1850. A selfeducated watchmaker who discovered a number of comets, William Bond became the first astronomical observer at Harvard Observatory in 1839 and its first director in 1847. He was elected an associate of the English Royal Astronomical Society in Great Britain in 1849.