Arthur Eddington
The Eddington luminosity discussed in the left frame
is named for the British astronomer Arthur Eddington
(1882-1944) who was perhaps the leading figure in astronomy
in the early part of this century.
He led an eclipse expedition in 1919 that provided the first confirmation of Einstein's new
theory of general relativity, and
made important contributions both to the relativity theory (Einstein said
his book on general relativity was the best in any language) and to understanding
the internal structure of stars.
On the negative side, he was strongly opposed to Chandrasekhar's new theory
of white dwarf structure in the 1930s,
and many credit Eddington's influence and authority with delaying the broad acceptance of this
important idea (now accepted as correct by all astrophysicists) for many years.