This is a
mathematical inquiry of the most arduous description, but the Plumian
Professor succeeded in working it out, and he had, accordingly, the
gratification of announcing to the Royal Society that he had detected
the influence which Venus was thus able to assert on the movement of
our earth around the sun. This remarkable investigation gained for
its author the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in the
year 1832.
In consequence Of his numerous discoveries, Airy's scientific fame
had become so well recognised that the Government awarded him a
special pension, and in 1835, when Pond, who was then Astronomer
Royal, resigned, Airy was offered the post at Greenwich. There was
in truth, no scientific inducement to the Plumian Professor to leave
the comparatively easy post he held at Cambridge, in which he had
ample leisure to devote himself to those researches which specially
interested him, and accept that of the much more arduous observatory
at Greenwich. There were not even pecuniary inducements to make the
change; however, he felt it to be his duty to accede to the request
which the Government had made that he would take up the position
which Pond had vacated, and accordingly Airy went to Greenwich as
Astronomer Royal on October 1st, 1835.
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