Bond, William Cranch (1789-1859)

US astronomer. He established the Harvard College Observatory as a centre of astronomical research. Much of his work was done in collaboration with his third son, George Phillips Bond. He also designed chronometers.

Bond was born in Falmouth, Maine, and worked as a watchmaker. An amateur astronomer, he was one of the independent observers who discovered the 1811 comet. He was commissioned by Harvard College to investigate the equipment at observatories in England during a trip he made there 1815, and in 1839 Harvard invited him to move his private observatory into their premises. Bond thus became the first director of the Harvard College Observatory.

The comet of 1843 roused sufficient interest for the observatory to get funds for a 38-cm/15-in refractor, the largest then available. With it William and George Bond discovered Hyperion (the eighth satellite of Saturn) 1848.

The two Bonds also collaborated on the development of photographic techniques for astronomy. They took superior photographs of the Moon, and the first photographs of stars.