Nevil Maskelyne is buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, the parish church of the village of Purton, Wiltshire, England.

From Maskelyne ’ s observations Charles Hutton deduced a density for the earth 4. 5 times that of water ( the modern value is 5. 515 ).

* Maskelyne features prominently in Dava Sobel's 1995 book, Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, as well as the television serial based on the book, where he is portayed by Samuel West.

* Maskelyne is portrayed as " Dr. Vickery " in Kate Grenville's semi-historical novel The Lieutenant.

* The lunar crater Maskelyne is named for him.

Speaking of Misdirection, Nevil Maskelyne wrote, " It consists admittedly in misleading the spectator's senses, in order to screen from detection certain details for which secrecy is required.

Wallach is located to the northeast of the crater Maskelyne, near some low ridges in the lunar mare.

To the northeast is the crater Maskelyne.

Maskelyne is a solitary lunar crater that lies in the southeast part of the Mare Tranquillitatis.

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Maskelyne.

Nevil Maskelyne was born in London, lived at Down Farm and is buried in Purton churchyard.

Metamorphosis is the name of a stage illusion invented by John Nevil Maskelyne, but most often associated with famous escape artist Harry Houdini and performed to some renown ( for speed ) by The Pendragons, among others.

Maskelyne took a great interest in various geodetical operations, notably the measurement of the length of a degree of latitude in Maryland and Pennsylvania, executed by Mason and Dixon in 1766 – 1768, and later the determination of the relative longitude of Greenwich and Paris.

Mason and Dixon could only do the work as accurately as they did due to the work of Nevil Maskelyne, some of whose instruments they used.

Maskelyne proposed measuring the gravitational force deflection induced by the pull of a nearby mountain upon a plumb-bob in 1772 and sent Mason ( who had returned to England ) on a site survey through central England and Scotland to find a suitable location during the summer of 1773.

Mason selected Schiehallion at which to conduct what became known as the Schiehallion experiment which was carried out primarily by Maskelyne and determined the density of the Scottish mountain.

Mason turned down a commission to carry out the work and it was instead coordinated by Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne.

They also made a number of gravity measurements with the same instrument that Dixon had used with Maskelyne in 1761.

The term lunatic was also used by supporters of John Harrison and his marine chronometer method of determining longitude to refer to proponents of the Method of Lunar Distances, advanced by Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne.

Nevil Maskelyne and Robert Waddington set up an observatory in 1761 to observe the transit of Venus, following a suggestion first made by Halley.

German reconnaissance aircraft photographed the site and the faked damage by Jasper Maskelyne convinced Chapman's controllers that the attack had been successful.

This proposal, the germ of the Nautical Almanac, was approved by the government, and under the care of Maskelyne the Nautical Almanac for 1767 was published in 1766.

Despite a possible conflict of interests, Maskelyne being an advocate of the lunar distance method of determining longitude, the Board of Longitude sent him to Barbados in 1763 to calculate the longitude of the capital, Bridgetown by observation of Jupiter's satellites, and also to test his lunar distance method and compare its accuracy to John Harrison's chronometer, the No. 4 timekeeper.

Even after a successful trial in Barbados in 1764 observed by Maskelyne, Harrison was required to produce detailed drawings and build two more chronometers, one of which was eventually tested by King George III himself.

Maskelyne also introduced several practical improvements, such as the measurement of time to tenths of a second ; and prevailed upon the government to replace Bird ’ s mural quadrant by a repeating circle 6 feet ( 1. 8 m ) in diameter.

The new instrument was constructed by Edward Troughton but Maskelyne did not live to see it completed.

Maskelyne exposed the Davenport Brothers by appearing in the audience during their shows and explaining how the trick was done.

Shortly afterwards he undertook the further laborious task of reducing the enormous mass of observations of the moon made at Greenwich during the same period under the direction, successively, of James Bradley, Nathaniel Bliss, Nevil Maskelyne and John Pond, to defray the expense of which a large sum of money was allotted by the Treasury.

A recent study by Richard Stokes attested that much of the story concerning the involvement of Jasper Maskelyne in counterintelligence operations, as described in the books " White Magic " and " Magic: Top Secret ", was pure invention, and that no such unit christened " Magic Gang " ever existed.

One of his most memorable stage illusions was the levitation of a girl advertised as the " Levitation of Princess Karnack " ( similar to an illusion invented by John Nevil Maskelyne ).

Kellar supposedly developed this trick by abruptly walking onto the stage during a show by Maskelyne, seeing what he needed to know, and leaving.

This crater was previously identified as Maskelyne E before being named by the IAU.

It was previously identified as Maskelyne H before being given a name by the IAU.

In the Tudor period the Maskelyne family were significant landlords and landowners in Purton, having inherited rights granted by the last Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey to the Pulley or Pulleyne family, from whom they descended on the distaff side.

George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Nevil Maskelyne, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Jefferson, and John Harrison's marine chronometer all make appearances.

His interest in astronomy grew stronger after he made the acquaintance of the English Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne.

* October 6 – Nevil Maskelyne, English Astronomer Royal ( d. 1811 )

The Reverend Dr Nevil Maskelyne FRS ( 6 October 1732 – 20 July 1811 ) was the fifth English Astronomer Royal.

Maskelyne was born in London, the third son of Edmund Maskelyne of Purton, Wiltshire.

Maskelyne attended Westminster School and was still a pupil there when his mother died in 1748.

Maskelyne entered St Catharine's College, Cambridge in 1749, graduating as seventh wrangler in 1754.

About 1785 Maskelyne married Sophia Rose of Cotterstock, Northamptonshire.

In 1758 Maskelyne was admitted to the Royal Society, which in 1761 despatched him to the island of St. Helena to observe the transit of Venus.

Bad weather prevented any useful observations, however Maskelyne used his journey to develop a method of determining longitude using the position of the moon, which became known as the lunar distance method.

Also, since the lunar distance method relied on tables that only Maskelyne was capable of calculating, the method was not yet in a position to take the prize.

However, two Astronomers Royal had recently died in quick succession and Maskelyne was appointed to the position soon after his return to England.

The position automatically made him an ex-officio member of the Board of Longitude and it was not long before a negative report was made on Harrison's chronometer, Maskelyne refusing to allow for the known rate at which Harrison's chronometer gained or lost time and thus dismissing it as inaccurate.

In 1772 Maskelyne proposed to the Royal Society what was to become known as the Schiehallion experiment ( named after the mountain on which it was performed ), for the determination of the Earth ’ s density using a plumb line.

Maskelyne performed his experiment in 1774 on Schiehallion in Perthshire, Scotland, the mountain being chosen due to its regular conical shape which permitted a reasonably accurate determination of its volume.