261 years ago today, September 17, 1764 (August 22, 1764 in the lunar calendar), British and Dutch astronomer John Goodlick was born. John Goodricke (September 17, 1764-April 20, 1786) was a British and Dutch astronomer who made outstanding contributions in the field of variable stars. Goodric was born in the Netherlands in 1764. He was deaf-mute due to fever as a child. He developed a deep interest in the starry sky when he was a teenager. In the winter of 1782, Goodrich, who was under the age of 20, continued to observe the variable star Alingi (Beta Persei) in the constellation Perseus, and calculated that its light change period was 2 days, 20 hours, 49 minutes and 8 seconds. He also proposed the light change mechanism of Alingi. It is believed that Alingi is a binary system composed of two stars, one bright and the other. The two stars orbit each other. When the two stars obscure each other, the overall brightness becomes dimmer. In 1888, German astronomer Vogel used spectroscopic methods to confirm Goodrick's idea. This binary star is now called an eclipsing binary star, or eclipsing variable star. Goodrick reported his theory to the Royal Society in May 1783, and received the Royal Society's Copley Medal for it. Over the next two years, Goodrick discovered two more variable stars: Beta Lyra (Chinese name 1 Centauri) and Delta Cephei (Chinese name 1 Cepheid). Goodrick correctly pointed out that Delta Cephei is a real variable star whose luminosity is changing. A large class of stars represented by the Delta star Cepheid is called Cepheid variable stars. In 1786, Goodrick was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Two weeks later, Goodric died of overwork under the age of 22. In memory of the deaf-mute astronomer, Goodrich College at the University of York was named after him after his death. Comment: British deaf-mute astronomer