Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Harvard College Observatory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Harvard College Observatory (or HCO) is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Department of Astronomy of Harvard. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and was founded in 1839. With the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, it forms part of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Between 1847 and 1852 pioneer photographer John Adams Whipple and astronomer William Cranch Bond, director of the Observatory, used Harvard's Great Refractor telescope to produce images of the moon that are remarkable in their clarity of detail and aesthetic power. This was the largest telescope in the world at that time, and their images of the moon took the prize for technical excellence in photography at the 1851 Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace in London. On the night of July 16-17, 1850, Whipple and Bond made the first daguerreotype of a star (Vega).
The Minor Planet Center credits some asteroid discoveries to "Harvard Observatory".
Harvard Observatory is historically important to astronomy, as many women including Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin performed pivotal stellar classification research. Cannon and Leavitt were hired initially as "computers" to perform calculations and examine stellar photographs, but later made insightful connections in their research. [1]
- HCO home page
- Reaching for the Stars: A Century Ago, Women Astronomers At Harvard Made Scientific History
- Boston Clear Sky Clock Forecasts of observing conditions covering HCO.
 |
This article about a specific observatory, telescope or astronomical instrument is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |