Josef de Mendoza y Ríos
Josef de Mendoza y Ríos | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Mendoza y Ríos. | |
| Born | 29 January 1761 Sevilla, Spain |
| Died | 4 March 1816 (aged 55) Brighton, England |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Known for | His Tratado de Navegación and the Tables for facilitating the calculations of nautical astronomy. |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Navigation, Astronomy, Mathematics |
| Institutions | Royal Society (1793). French Academy of Sciences. |
Josef (also José or Joseph) de Mendoza y Ríos (1761–1816) was a Spanish astronomer and mathematician of the 18th century, famous for his work on navigation. The first work of Mendoza y Ríos was published in 1787: his treatise about the science and technique of navigation in two tomes. He also published several tables for facilitating the calculations of nautical astronomy and useful in navigation to calculate the latitude of a ship at sea from two altitudes of the sun, and the longitude from the distances of the moon from a celestial body.
In the field of the nautical instruments, he improved the reflecting circle.
In 1816, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.