Baracchi, Pietro Paolo Giovanni Ernesto (1851 - 1926)

Summary

Pietro Baracchi was Government Astronomer of Victoria 1900-1915. He established a small observatory on Mount Stromlo in 1910 for the Commonwealth government.

Details

Educated in civil engineering, Florence (?). Engineer, Italian Army; assistant, Melbourne Observatory 1876-77; draftsman, Victorian Lands & Survey Department 1877-82; passed land surveyor's examination with credit 1880; assistant, Melbourne Observatory 1882-83; third assistant, in charge of the Great Melbourne Telescope 1883-92; first assistant 1892-95; acting government astronomer 1895-1900; government astronomer 1900-15. Order of Knight Commander of the Crown of Italy 1897. President, Royal Society of Victoria 1908-09.

Chronology

1884 - 1926

Award - Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society, United Kingdom

1887 - 1926

Career position - Member, Royal Society of Victoria

1888 -

Career event - Original [founding] member, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1895

Life event - Naturalised as an Australian citizen

1897

Award - Order of Knight Commander of the Crown of Italy

1898

Career position - President, Section A (Astronomy, Mathematics and Physics), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1900 - 1915

Career position - Director, Melbourne Observatory, and Victoria Government Astronomer

1902

Career event - Gave evidence to the "Interstate Royal Commission on the River Murray"

1908 - 1909

Career position - President, Royal Society of Victoria

1910

Career position - Leader, expedition to observe solar eclipses, Bruny Island, Tasmania

1911

Career position - Leader, expedition to observe solar eclipses, Tongan archipelago

1914 - 1922

Career position - Trustee, Royal Society of Victoria

Mar 1916

Award - Honorary Member, Victorian Institute of Engineers

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Volpe, Daniela, From Tuscany to Victoria: the life and work of Pietro Baracchi, Carlo Catani, Ettore Cecchi (Melbourne: Italian Australian Institute, 2005), 287 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Baracchi, P., 'Astronomy and geodesy in Australia' in Federal handbook prepared in connection with the eighty-fourth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held in Australia 1914, Knibbs, G. H., ed. (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1914), pp. 326-90. Details
• Perdrix, J. L., 'Baracchi, Pietro Paolo Giovanni Ernesto (1851-1926), astronomer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 7: 1891 - 1939 A-Ch, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1979), pp. 166-167. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070169b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Baracchi, P., 'Spectra of southern stars observed at the Melbourne Observatory with the MacLean direct-vision spectroscope attached to the southern equatorial', Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 50 (1889), 66-71. Details
• Baracchi, P., 'Magnetic work in Australia', Terrestrial magnetism, 1 (1896), 191-6. Details
• Baracchi, Pietro, 'On the rainfall of the State of Victoria (Paper & Discussion)', Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Engineers vol. VI (1906), 97-118, 120-129. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/24347. Details
• Gascoigne, S. C. B., 'The Great Melbourne Telescope and Other 19th Century Reflectors', Historical Records of Australian Science, 10 (3) (1995), 223-245. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9951030223. Details
• Gascoigne, S. C. B., 'The Great Melbourne Telescope and Other 19th Century Reflectors', Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 37 (1996), 101-128. Details
• Orchiston, Wayne, 'Comets and Communication: Amateur-Professional Tension in Australian Astronomy', Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 16 (1999), 212-221. Details
• Smith, Robyn, 'Pietro Baracchi and His Sojourn in Port Darwin', Journal of Northern Territory History, 22 (2011), 89-96. Details

Newspaper Articles

• 'Funeral of Professor Kernot', The Age (1909), 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196135626. Pall bearer. Details

Parliamentary papers

• Interstate Royal Commission on the River Murray, Interstate Royal Commission on the River Murray, representing the states of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia : Report of the Commissioners, with minutes of evidence, appendices and plans (Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide: 1902), 60, 359 pp. https://pov.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_GB/parl_paper/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:34095/one. Gave evidence. Minutes of Evidence pp.191. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/77835744. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2230863. Details
• 'Baracchi, Pietro (1851-1851)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-610323. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Baracchi, Pietro Paolo Giovanni Ernesto', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P001410p.htm. Details

Theses

• Stevenson, T., 'Measuring the stars and observing the less visible: Australia's participation in the Astrographic Catalogue and Carte du Ciel', Thesis, University of Sydney, 2015, 381 pp. Details

See also

• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_b.html. Details
• Lomb, Nick; and Stevenson, Toner eds, Eclipse chasers (Clayton South, Vic: CSIRO Publishing, 2023), 216 pp. Details
• Perdrix, John, 'The Last Great Speculum: the 48-inch Great Melbourne Telescope', Australian Journal of Astronomy, 4 (3) (1992), 149-163. Details
• Smith, James, ed., The Cyclopedia of Victoria: an historical and commercial review: descriptive and biographical, facts, figures and illustrations: an epitome of progress (Melbourne: Cyclopedia Co, 1903-1905), vol.1: 618 pp, vol.2: 563 pp, vol.3: 643 pp. 'Pietro Barachi' Vol.1 p.193-4. Details