Charles Green

Charles Green (baptised December 26, 1734 - January 29, 1771) was a British astronomer, noted for his assignment by the Royal Society in 1768 to the expedition sent to the Pacific Ocean in order to observe the transit of Venus aboard James Cook's Endeavor. Greene was born around December 1734 and was the youngest son of Joshua Green, a prosperous farmer who lived near Swinton in Yorkshire. His education, according to his future brother-in-law, William Wales, took place mainly in a school near Denmark Street in Soho, London. This school was run by his elder brother, clergyman Rev. John Green, and the younger Green became a teacher assistant there, continuing his astronomy studies until he joined the staff of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in 1760. Green was appointed assistant to the royal astronomer James Bradley, replacing astronomer Charles Mason, who went on an expedition to Cape of Good Hope to observe the transit of Venus in 1761. After the death of Bradley in 1762, Green continued to play the role of Assistant Successor to Bradley Nathaniel Bliss. Due to Bliss's poor health, most of the practical astronomy of observations passed to Green at this time.