The is the highest award of the Royal Astronomical Society .
In the early years, more than one medal was often awarded in a year, but by 1833 only one medal was being awarded per year. This caused a problem when Neptune was discovered in 1846 , because many felt an award should jointly be made to John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier . A controversy arose and no award was made in 1847 .
The controversy was "resolved" by giving 12 "testimonial" awards in 1848 to various people including Adams and Le Verrier, and in 1849 awards resumed, with a limit of one per year. Adams and Le Verrier did not get their gold medals until 1866 and 1868 , respectively. Adams, as President, presented Le Verrier with the medal.
The practice of awarding one medal a year continued until 1963 , although two medals were awarded in both 1867 and 1886 and in a few years no award was made. Since 1964 there have been two awards in most years, one for astronomy and one for Geophysics .
- 1824 , Charles Babbage , Johann Franz Encke
- 1826 , John Herschel , James South , Wilhelm Struve
- 1827 , Francis Baily
- 1828 , Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane , James Dunlop , Caroline Herschel
- 1829 , Rev. William Pearson , Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel , Heinrich Christian Schumacher
- 1830 , William Richardson , Johann Franz Encke
- 1831 , Captain Henry Kater , Baron Marie-Charles Damoiseau
- 1833 , George Biddell Airy
- 1835 , Lieut. Manuel J. Johnson
- 1836 , John Herschel
- 1837 , Otto A. Rosenberger
- 1839 , The Hon. John Wrottesley
- 1840 , Giovanni Plana
- 1841 , Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel
- 1842 , Peter Andreas Hansen
- 1843 , Francis Baily
- 1845 , Captain William Henry Smyth
- 1846 , George Biddell Airy
- 1849 , William Lassell
- 1850 , Otto Wilhelm Struve
- 1851 , Annibale De Gasparis
- 1852 , Christian August Friedrich Peters
- 1853 , John Russell Hind
- 1854 , Charles Rümker
- 1855 , William Rutter Dawes
- 1856 , Robert Grant
- 1857 , Heinrich Schwabe
- 1858 , The Rev. Robert Main
- 1859 , Richard Christopher Carrington
- 1860 , Peter Andreas Hansen
- 1861 , Hermann Goldschmidt
- 1862 , Warren De La Rue
- 1863 , Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander
- 1865 , George Phillips Bond
- 1866 , John Couch Adams
- 1867 , William Huggins , William Allen Miller
- 1868 , Urbain Le Verrier
- 1869 , Edward James Stone
- 1870 , Charles-Eugène Delaunay
- 1872 , Giovanni Schiaparelli
- 1874 , Simon Newcomb
- 1875 , Heinrich D'Arrest
- 1876 , Urbain Le Verrier
- 1878 , Baron Ercole Dembowski
- 1879 , Asaph Hall
- 1881 , Axel Möller
- 1882 , David Gill
- 1883 , Benjamin A. Gould
- 1884 , Andrew Ainslie Common
- 1885 , William Huggins
- 1886 , Edward Charles Pickering , Charles Pritchard
- 1887 , George William Hill
- 1888 , Arthur Auwers
- 1889 , Maurice Loewy
- 1892 , George Howard Darwin
- 1893 , Hermann Carl Vogel
- 1894 , S. W. Burnham
- 1895 , Isaac Roberts
- 1896 , Seth Carlo Chandler
- 1897 , Edward Emerson Barnard
- 1898 , William Frederick Denning
- 1899 , Frank McClean
- 1900 , Henri Poincaré
- 1901 , Edward Charles Pickering
- 1902 , Jacobus Kapteyn
- 1903 , Hermann Struve
- 1904 , George Ellery Hale
- 1905 , Lewis Boss
- 1906 , William Wallace Campbell
- 1907 , Ernest William Brown
- 1908 , Sir David Gill
- 1909 , Oskar Backlund
- 1910 , Friedrich Küstner
- 1911 , Philip Herbert Cowell
- 1912 , Arthur Robert Hinks
- 1913 , Henri-Alexandre Deslandres
- 1914 , Max Wolf
- 1915 , Alfred Fowler
- 1916 , John L. E. Dreyer
- 1917 , Walter Sydney Adams
- 1918 , John Evershed
- 1919 , Guillaume Bigourdan
- 1921 , Henry Norris Russell
- 1922 , James Hopwood Jeans
- 1923 , Albert A. Michelson
- 1924 , Arthur Eddington
- 1925 , Sir Frank Watson Dyson
- 1926 , Albert Einstein
- 1927 , Frank Schlesinger
- 1928 , Ralph Allen Sampson
- 1929 , Ejnar Hertzsprung
- 1930 , John Stanley Plaskett
- 1931 , Willem De Sitter
- 1932 , Robert Grant Aitken
- 1933 , Vesto Slipher
- 1934 , Harlow Shapley
- 1935 , E. Arthur Milne
- 1936 , Hisashi Kimura
- 1937 , Harold Jeffreys
- 1938 , William Hammond Wright
- 1939 , Bernard Lyot
- 1940 , Edwin Hubble
- 1943 , Harold Spencer Jones
- 1944 , Otto Struve
- 1945 , Bengt Edlen
- 1946 , Jan Oort
- 1947 , Marcel Minnaert
- 1948 , Bertil Lindblad
- 1949 , Sydney Chapman
- 1950 , Joel Stebbins
- 1951 , Anton Pannekoek
- 1952 , John Jackson
- 1953 , Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
- 1954 , Walter Baade
- 1955 , Dirk Brouwer
- 1956 , Thomas George Cowling
- 1957 , Albrecht Unsöld
- 1958 , André Danjon
- 1959 , Raymond Arthur Lyttleton
- 1960 , Viktor Ambartsumian
- 1961 , Herman Zanstra
- 1962 , Bengt Strömgren
- 1963 , H. H. Plaskett
- 1964 , Martin Ryle , Maurice Ewing
- 1965 , Edward Bullard , Gerald Maurice Clemence
- 1966 , Ira S. Bowen , Harold C. Urey
- 1967 , Hannes Alfven , Allan Sandage
- 1968 , Sir Fred Hoyle , Walter Munk
- 1969 , A. T. Price , Martin Schwarzschild
- 1970 , Horace W. Babcock
- 1971 , F. Press , Sir Richard Van Der Riet Woolley
- 1972 , H. I. S. Thirlaway , Fritz Zwicky
- 1973 , F. Birch , Edwin Salpeter
- 1974 , Ludwig Biermann , K. E. Bullen
- 1975 , Jesse Greenstein , Ernst Öpik
- 1976 , William H. McCrea , J. A. Ratcliffe
- 1977 , D. R. Bates , John G. Bolton
- 1978 , Lyman Spitzer , James Van Allen
- 1979 , L. Knopoff , C. G. Wynne
- 1980 , C. L. Pekeris , Maarten Schmidt
- 1981 , J. F. Gilbert , Sir Bernard Lovell
- 1982 , Riccardo Giacconi , Sir Harrie Massey
- 1983 , M. J. Seaton , Fred Whipple
- 1984 , S. K. Runcorn , Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich
- 1985 , Thomas Gold , Stephen Hawking
- 1986 , G. E. Backus , A. Dalgarno
- 1987 , Takesi Nagata , Martin Rees
- 1988 , D. L. Anderson , C. De Jager
- 1989 , R. Hide , K. A. Pounds
- 1990 , J. W. Dungey , B. E. J. Pagel
- 1991 , Vitaly Ginzburg , G. J. Wasserburg
- 1992 , D. P. McKenzie , Eugene N. Parker
- 1993 , Peter Goldreich , Donald Lynden-Bell
- 1994 , James E. Gunn , T. R. Kaiser
- 1995 , J. Houghton , Rashid Sunyaev
- 1996 , K. Creer , Vera Rubin
- 1997 , D. Farley , Donald Osterbrock
- 1998 , R. L. Parker , James Peebles
- 1999 , K. Budden , Bohdan Paczynski
- 2000 , L. Lucy , R. Hutchinson
- 2001 , Hermann Bondi , H. Rishbeth
- 2002 , Leon Mestel , J. A. Jacobs
- 2003 , John Bahcall , D. Gubbins
- 2004 , Jeremiah P. Ostriker , Grenville Turner
- 2005 , Margaret Burbidge , Geoffrey Burbidge , Carole Jordan
- 2006 , Simon White , S. W. H. Cowley
- 2007 , J. L. Culhane , Nigel O. Weiss
On two occasions, silver medals were also awarded, but this was soon discontinued.
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