Engineering and the beginnings of astronomy
Gore was born in Athlone on 1 June 1845, the son of the clergyman John Ribton Gore and Frances Brabazon Ellard. Privately educated before attending Trinity College Dublin, he obtained his engineering qualification in 1865. He joined the Indian Public Works Department in 1868 and worked on the Sirhind Canal in the Punjab.
His astronomical work developed alongside engineering. Using small telescopes in India, he collected observations that became Southern Stellar Objects for Small Telescopes, published in 1877. He returned to Ireland that year on leave and retired from the Indian service in 1879 with a pension. He subsequently lived in County Sligo and then Dublin, devoting his time to observing and writing.
Watching stars change
Variable stars—stars whose brightness changes—were a central interest. Gore compiled catalogues of known and suspected variables, contributed observations to scientific journals and helped make systematic observing a field in which amateurs could participate. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1878 and became a founding member of the British Astronomical Association in 1890.
On 13 December 1885 Gore noticed a reddish star in Orion that seemed absent from his charts. Initially treated as a possible nova, it proved to be the long-period variable U Orionis. His later Star Groups records both his discovery and the corrected interpretation.
As the first director of the BAA’s Variable Star Section, he encouraged observations of neglected and suspected variables and searches for new stars. Jeremy Shears’s historical study also identifies shortcomings: observers did not receive enough feedback, and their work was insufficiently coordinated around a shared programme. Participation declined during the 1890s.
