30 August

1844: On 30 August 1844, Francis Baily died.

Baily was a British astronomer who detected the phenomenon called Baily's beads during a total eclipse of the Sun on 15 May 1836. His vivid description aroused new interest in the study of eclipses.

Baily also revised several star catalogues, repeated Henry Cavendish's experiments to determine the density of Earth and measured its elliptical shape.