John Russell Hind was born in 1823 in
Nottingham, the son of lace manufacturer John Hind and Elizabeth Russell, and was educated at
Nottingham High School. At age 17 he went to
London to serve an apprenticeship as a civil engineer, but through the help of
Charles Wheatstone he left engineering to accept a position at the
Royal Observatory, Greenwich under
George Biddell Airy. Hind remained there from 1840 to 1844, at which time he succeeded
W. R. Dawes as director of the private
George Bishop's Observatory. In 1853 Hind became Superintendent of the
Nautical Almanac, a position he held until 1891. Hind is notable for being one of the early discoverers of
asteroids. He also discovered and observed the
variable stars
R Leporis (also known as Hind's Crimson Star),
U Geminorum, and
T Tauri (also called Hind's Variable Nebula), and discovered the variability of
μ Cephei. Hind discovered
Nova Ophiuchi 1848 (
V841 Ophiuchi), the first object of its type discovered since 1670. Hind's naming of the asteroid
12 Victoria caused some controversy. At the time, asteroids were not supposed to be named after living persons. Hind somewhat disingenuously claimed that the name was not a reference to
Queen Victoria, but the mythological figure
Victoria. He was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1863 and President of the
Royal Astronomical Society for 1880-1882. He died in 1895 at his home 3 Cambridge Park Gardens,
Twickenham, London. Hind had married Fanny Fuller in 1846; he and his wife had six children. == Honours and legacy ==