Harold D. Babcock

Harold Delos Babcock (January 24, 1882 – April 8, 1968) was an American astronomer and the father of Horace W. Babcock. 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 worked at the Mount Wilson Observatory from 1907 until 1948.[1] He specialized in solar spectroscopy and precisely mapped the distribution of magnetic fields over the Sun's surface, working alongside his son.[3] In 1953 he won the Bruce Medal.[4] Babcock died of a heart attack in Pasadena, California at age 86.[5]

Harold Delos Babcock
Babcock at the Fourth Conference International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research at Mount Wilson Observatory, 1910
Born24 January 1882
Edgerton, Wisconsin
Died8 April 1968
Pasadena, California
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
AwardsBruce Medal
Scientific career
FieldsSolar spectroscopy
InstitutionsMount Wilson Observatory

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

References
  1. "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. Bowen, Ira Sprague. Harold Delos Babcock: 1882–1968 (PDF). National Academy of Sciences.
  4. Tenn, Joseph S. (2015-10-25). "The Bruce Medalists: Harold D. Babcock". www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
  5. "Astronomer Dies". The La Crosse Tribune. April 10, 1968. p. 17. Retrieved February 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com. open access

Obituaries


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