The Harvard College Observatory (HCO) is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for

astronomical Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies ...

research by the

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Department of Astronomy. It is located in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and was founded in 1839. With the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, it forms part of the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. HCO houses a collection of approximately 500,000 astronomical plates taken between the mid-1880s and 1989 (with a gap from 1953–1968). This 100-year coverage is a unique resource for studying temporal variations in the universe. The

Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard The Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard (DASCH) is a project to preserve and digitize images recorded on astronomical photographic plates created before astronomy became dominated by digital imaging. It is a major project of the Center for ...

project is digitally scanning and archiving these photographic plates.

History

In 1839, the Harvard Corporation voted to appoint

William Cranch Bond William Cranch Bond (September 9, 1789 – January 29, 1859) was an American astronomer, and the first director of Harvard College Observatory. Upbringing William Cranch Bond was born in Falmouth, Maine (near Portland) on September 9, 1789. ...

, a prominent Boston clockmaker, as "Astronomical Observer to the University" (at no salary). This marked the founding of the Harvard College Observatory. HCO's first telescope, the 15-inch

Great Refractor Great refractor refers to a large telescope with a lens, usually the largest refractor at an observatory with an equatorial mount. The preeminence and success of this style in observational astronomy defines an era in modern telescopy in the 19t ...

, was installed in 1847. That telescope was the largest in the United States from installation until 1867. Between 1847 and 1852 Bond and pioneer photographer

John Adams Whipple John Adams Whipple (September 10, 1822 – April 10, 1891) was an American inventor and early photographer. He was the first in the United States to manufacture the chemicals used for daguerreotypes. He pioneered astronomical and night pho ...

used the

telescope to produce images of the moon that are remarkable in their clarity of detail and aesthetic power. This was the largest telescope in North America at that time, and their images of the moon took the prize for technical excellence in photography at the 1851

Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...

The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibit ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. On the night of July 16–17, 1850, Whipple and Bond made the first

daguerreotype Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre an ...

of a star (Vega). Harvard College Observatory is historically important to astronomy, as many women including

Annie Jump Cannon Annie Jump Cannon (; December 11, 1863 – April 13, 1941) was an American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification. With Edward C. Pickering, she is credited with the creation of ...

Henrietta Swan Leavitt Henrietta Swan Leavitt (; July 4, 1868 – December 12, 1921) was an American astronomer. A graduate of Radcliffe College, she worked at the Harvard College Observatory as a "computer", tasked with examining photographic plates in order to measu ...

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (born Cecilia Helena Payne; – ) was a British-born American astronomer and astrophysicist who proposed in her 1925 doctoral thesis that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Her groundbreaking conclus ...

Williamina Fleming (15 May 1857 – 21 May 1911) was a Scottish-American astronomer. She was a single mother, hired by the director of the Harvard College Observatory to help in the photographic classification of stellar spectra. She helped develop a common d ...

, and

Florence Cushman Florence Cushman (1860-1940) was an American astronomer specializing in stellar classification at the Harvard College Observatory who worked on the ''Henry Draper Catalogue''. Life Florence was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1860 and receiv ...

performed pivotal

stellar classification In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their stellar spectrum, spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a Prism (optics), prism or diffraction grati ...

research. Cannon, Leavitt and Cushman were hired initially as "

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

s" to perform calculations and examine stellar photographs, but later made insightful connections in their research.

Publications

From 1898 to 1926, a series of ''Bulletin''s were issued containing many of the major discoveries of the period. These were then replaced by ''Announcement Card''s which continued to be issued until 1952. In 1908, the observatory published the

Harvard Revised Photometry Catalogue The Bright Star Catalogue, also known as the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars, Yale Bright Star Catalogue, or just YBS, is a star catalogue that lists all stars of stellar magnitude 6.5 or brighter, which is roughly every star visible to the n ...

, which gave rise to the ''HR'' star catalogue, now maintained by the

Yale University Observatory The Yale University Observatory, also known as the Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium, is an astronomy, astronomical observatory owned and operated by Yale University, and maintained for student use. It is located in Farnham Memorial Garden ...

as the

Bright Star Catalogue The Bright Star Catalogue, also known as the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars, Yale Bright Star Catalogue, or just YBS, is a star catalogue that lists all stars of stellar magnitude 6.5 or brighter, which is roughly every star visible to the nak ...

Directors

1839–1859 *

George Phillips Bond George Phillips Bond (May 20, 1825February 17, 1865) was an American astronomer. He was the son of William Cranch Bond. Some sources give his year of birth as 1826. His early interest was in nature and birds, but after his elder brother William ...

1859–1865 * Joseph Winlock 1866–1875 *

Edward Charles Pickering Edward Charles Pickering (July 19, 1846 – February 3, 1919) was an American astronomer and physicist and the older brother of William Henry Pickering. Along with Carl Vogel, Pickering discovered the first spectroscopic binary stars. He wrote ''E ...

1877–1919 *

Solon Irving Bailey Solon Irving Bailey (December 29, 1854 – June 5, 1931) was an American astronomer and discoverer of the main-belt asteroid 504 Cora, on June 30, 1902. Bailey joined the staff of Harvard College Observatory in 1887. He received an M.A. from th ...

1919–1921 (Acting Director) *

Harlow Shapley Harlow Shapley (November 2, 1885 – October 20, 1972) was an American scientist, head of the Harvard College Observatory (1921–1952), and political activist during the latter New Deal and Fair Deal. Shapley used Cepheid variable stars to estim ...

1921–1952 * Donald H. Menzel 1952–1953 (Acting Director); 1954–1966 (Director) *

Leo Goldberg Leopold Goldberg (26 January 1913 – 1 November 1987) was an American astronomer who held professorships at Harvard and the University of Michigan and the directorships of several major observatories. He was president of both the International As ...

1966–1970 *

Fred Whipple Fred Lawrence Whipple (November 5, 1906 – August 30, 2004) was an American astronomer, who worked at the Harvard College Observatory for more than 70 years. Amongst his achievements were asteroid and comet discoveries, the " dirty snowball" h ...

1955-1973 *

George B. Field George B. Field (born October 25, 1929 in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American astrophysicist. Early life, family and education Field was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His father Winthrop Brooks Field and mother Pauline Woodworth Fie ...

1973-1982 (founding director of the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian) * Irwin Shapiro 1983–2004 * Charles Alcock 2004–2022 * Lisa Kewley 2022–present

References

External links

HCO home page

Center for Astrophysics , Harvard & Smithsonian

{{Authority control Harvard University Buildings and structures in Cambridge, Massachusetts Astronomical observatories in Massachusetts Astronomy institutes and departments Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Minor-planet discovering observatories

History

Publications

Directors

See also

References

Further reading

External links