Harold D. Babcock

Harold Delos Babcock
Babcock at the Fourth Conference International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research at Mount Wilson Observatory, 1910
Born(1882-01-24)24 January 1882
Edgerton, Wisconsin, US
Died8 April 1968(1968-04-08) (aged 86)
Pasadena, California, US
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
AwardsBruce Medal
Scientific career
FieldsSolar spectroscopy
InstitutionsMount Wilson Observatory

Harold Delos Babcock (January 24, 1882 – April 8, 1968) was an American astronomer. He was of English and German ancestry.[1] He was born in Edgerton, Wisconsin, before completing high school in Los Angeles and was accepted to the University of California, Berkeley in 1901.[2] He studied electrical engineering and graduated in 1907. After that he worked briefly for NIST, and as an instructor in Berkeley, until he was proposed a position at the Mount Wilson Observatory.[3] He worked there from 1909 until 1948.[1]

Babcock specialized in solar spectroscopy and precisely mapped the distribution of magnetic fields over the Sun's surface, working alongside his son, Horace W. Babcock.[4] He developed the "ruling engine which has made many of the finest diffraction gratings" and, together with his son, the solar magnetograph.[5]

In 1953 Babcock won the Bruce Medal.[6] Babcock died of a heart attack in Pasadena, California at age 86.[7]

The crater Babcock on the Moon is named after him, as is asteroid 3167 Babcock (jointly named after him and his son).

References

  1. ^ a b "Harold D. Babcock". www.nndb.com. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
  2. ^ Hockey, Thomas (2009). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
  3. ^ QJRAS 10 (1969) 68
  4. ^ Bowen, Ira Sprague. Harold Delos Babcock: 1882–1968 (PDF). National Academy of Sciences.
  5. ^ Obs 88 (1968) 174
  6. ^ Tenn, Joseph S. (2015-10-25). "The Bruce Medalists: Harold D. Babcock". www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-10-10. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
  7. ^ "Astronomer Dies". The La Crosse Tribune. April 10, 1968. p. 17. Retrieved February 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.


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