Гораций Парнелл Таттл: Американский астроном и ветеран Гражданской войны

American astronomer (1837–1923)
Horace Parnell Tuttle (March 17, 1837 – August 16, 1923) was an American astronomer, an American Civil War veteran and brother of astronomer Charles Wesley Tuttle (November 1, 1829 – July 17, 1881).

H. P. Tuttle was born at Newfield, Maine. His parents were Moses Tuttle and Mary Merrow. In 1845 Mary Merrow died, and four years later Moses Tuttle remarried and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Charles Wesley Tuttle was an amateur astronomer who constructed his own telescope, and on a visit to the Harvard Observatory so impressed William Cranch Bond that by 1850 he was hired as an assistant observer. At Harvard Charles Wesley first proposed the existence of the interior "dusky ring" of Saturn. In 1853 he discovered a comet (C/1853 E1 Secchi), with independent discovery credited to Father Secchi, Rome. The following year Charles Wesley was forced to give up his astronomical career because of failing eyesight. He entered Harvard Law School and became U. S. Commissioner. Charles wrote many articles for the New England Historic Genealogy Society. Charles was soon replaced at Harvard by his younger brother Horace, who joined Truman Henry Safford, Sidney Coolidge, and Asaph Hall as observatory assistants. Horace became attached to a four inch Merz comet seeker, which he placed on the balconies of the 15 inch refractor, spending many nights in search of new comets. Horace Tuttle discovered or co discovered numerous comets, including 55P/Tempel Tuttle (parent body of the Leonid meteor shower, discovered by Tuttle January 6, 1866), and 109P/Swift Tuttle (parent body of the Perseid meteor shower, disc. July 19, 1862), the "Great Comet of 1860", C/1860 III (disc. June 22, 1860), C/1859 G1 Tempel (disc April 24, 1859). Other periodic comets that bear his name are 8P/Tuttle (parent comet of the Ursid meteor shower; disc. January 5, 1858 "rather faint") and 41P/Tuttle Giacobini Kresak (disc. May 3, 1858 in Leo Minor "very faint"), C/1861 Y1 Tuttle, (disc. December 19, 1862), C/1859 G1 Tempel (disc. April 28, 1859). The asteroid 5036 Tuttle was named in his honor. In 1859 he was awarded the Lalande Prize of the French Academy of Sciences for the discovery of comets 1858I, 1858III, and 1858VII. Tuttle is credited with the "discovery" of galaxies NGC 2655 in Camelopardalis, and NGC 6643 in Draco. He dabbled in applications of the new Morse Code, and invented a method of signaling long distances by "light flashes". He is credited with inventing a new method for the insertion of rifled steel cores into brass or iron cannon. His observing log books from this period are preserved at the library of the U. S. Naval Observatory.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Horace Tuttle enlisted in the 44th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and served at New Bern, North Carolina. It would be through the intervention of former Harvard president Edward Everett that Tuttle was given a commission in the U. S. Navy and as paymaster. He served on a number of vessels, including the monitor Catskill, where he participated in the blockade of Charleston Harbor and the capture of the blockade runner Deer. Tuttle was appointed acting assistant paymaster, February 17, 1863, assistant paymaster, July 2, 1864, and paymaster, May 4, 1866. He continued to make astronomical observations during the war, reporting on the 1864 appearance of Comet Tempel 1864 II from the deck of the Catskill. After the war Tuttle was sent to South America, Europe, and the Pacific, making scientific observations on Naval survey vessels.