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]

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.

Obituaries


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