The Bruce Medalists: Harold D. Babcock

<body bgcolor=#9CCEFF> <base TARGET ="new"> <font SIZE=8><b><a HREF="../Intro.html" TARGET="main"><font COLOR="#CC6600">The Bruce Medalists</font></a></b></font> <p>   </p> <base TARGET ="new"> <table width=100% CELLSPACING=2 CELLPADDING=0> <tr><td width = "33%"> </td> <td width = "34%" align=center><a HREF="babcock-hd.jpg"><img SRC="babcock-hdSml.jpg" ALT="" HEIGHT=125 width="91" border="2"></a></td> <td width = "33%" height=middle><font SIZE=1>Photo 1952, courtesy Dr. H. W. Babcock</font></td></tr> <tr><td colspan=3 align=center><font SIZE=5><b><font COLOR="#CC6600">Harold Delos Babcock</font></b></font></td> <tr><td width = "33%"><b>24 January 1882</b></td> <td align=center width="34%"><b>1953 Bruce Medalist</b></td> <td width = "33%" align=right><b>8 April 1968</b></td> </tr> </table> <p>Educated at the <b><a HREF="http://www.berkeley.edu/about/history/">University of California</a></b>, Harold Babcock was one of the first staff members of the <b><a HREF="http://www.mtwilson.edu/">Mt. Wilson Observatory</a></b>, where he remained from 1909 to 1948. In the early years he participated in <b><a HREF="http://www.mtwilson.edu/his/art/g2a1.htm">solar research</a></b> with <b><a HREF="../Hale/index.html">George E. Hale</a></b>. Babcocks precise laboratory studies of atomic spectra allowed others to identify the first forbidden lines in the laboratory and to discover the rare isotopes of oxygen. With C.E. St. John he greatly improved the precision of the wavelengths of some 22,000 lines in the solar spectrum, referring them to newly-determined standards, and extending measurements into the ultraviolet and infrared. With his son, <b><a HREF="../BabcockHW/index.html">Horace W. Babcock</a></b>, he measured the distribution of magnetic fields over the solar surface to unprecedented precision. The Babcocks ruled excellent large gratings, including those used in the coudé spectrographs of the 100 and 200-inch telescopes.</p> <p> <b><font SIZE="+1"><font COLOR="#CC6600">Presentation of Bruce medal</font></FONT></b><br> Kron, Gerald E., <a HREF="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1953PASP...65...65K"><i>PASP</i> <b>65</b>, 65 (1953)</a>. <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Some offices held</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://www.astrosociety.org/">Astronomical Society of the Pacific</a>, President, 1937.<br></p> <p><b><font SIZE="+1"><font COLOR="#CC6600">Biographical materials</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="../Bowen/index.html">Bowen, Ira S.,</a> <a href="http://books.nap.edu/books/0309022398/html/1.html#pagetop"><i>Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Science</i> <b>45</b>, 1-19 (1975)</a>.<br> <p><b><font SIZE="+1"><font COLOR="#CC6600">Obituaries</font></FONT></b><br> <a HREF="../Joy/index.html">Joy, A.H.</a>, <i>Sky & Telescope</i> <b>35</b>, 350 (1968).<br> Plaskett, H.H., <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1969QJRAS..10...68."><i>QJRAS</i> <b>10</b>, 68-72 (1969)</a>.<br> <i>Science</i> <b>160</b>, 520 (1968).<br> <b><a HREF="http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/persons/obit/obit_ba.html">More obituaries</a></b> </p> <p><b><font SIZE="+1"><font COLOR="#CC6600">Photos</font></FONT></b><br> <a HREF="https://store.aip.org/OA_HTML/aipsearchresults.jsp?cg=10005&kw=harold+babcock%0D%0A&ds=0&dr=20&st=kw&cpg=0">AIP Center for History of Physics</a></p> <p><b><font SIZE="+1"><font COLOR="#CC6600">Named after him</font></FONT></b><br> <a HREF="http://wwwflag.wr.usgs.gov/USGSFlag/Space/nomen/nomen.html">Lunar crater Babcock</a><br> <a HREF="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPNames.html#b">Minor Planet #3167 Babcock</a> (with <a HREF="../BabcockHW/">H.W. Babcock</a>)<br></p> <p><b><font SIZE="+1"><a HREF="BabcockHDRefs.html" TARGET="_self">More references</a></font></b></p> <p> <center><b><a HREF="../Intro.html" TARGET="main">The Bruce Medalists</a></b></center> </p> <p> <table WIDTH=100%> <tr> <td VALIGN=TOP><font SIZE=-1>Please send comments, additions, corrections, and questions to<br> <a HREF=MAILTO:joe.tenn@sonoma.edu> joe.tenn@sonoma.edu</a><br></td> <td ALIGN=RIGHT VALIGN=TOP><font SIZE=-1><i> <a HREF="http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/people/faculty/tenn/" TARGET="new">JST</a> </i><br> <a HREF="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html" TARGET="new">2005-04-26</a></td></font> </tr> </table></body>