The Bruce Medalists: Horace W. 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-hw.jpg"><img SRC="babcock-hwSml.jpg" ALT="" HEIGHT=118 width="91" border="2"></a></td> <td width = "33%" height=middle><font SIZE=1>Photo c. 1953, courtesy Dr. Babcock</font></td></tr> <tr><td colspan=3 align=center><font SIZE=5><b><font COLOR="#CC6600">Horace Welcome Babcock</font></b></font></td> <tr><td width = "33%"><b>13 September 1912</b></td> <td align=center width="34%"><b>1969 Bruce Medalist</b></td> <td width = "33%" align=right><b>29 August 2003</b></td> </tr> </table> <p>Horace Babcock was born in California and educated at the <b><a HREF="http://www.caltech.edu/subpages/about.html">California Institute of Technology</a></b> and the <b><a HREF="http://www.berkeley.edu/about/history/">University of California at Berkeley</a></b>. For his doctorate he determined the rotation curve of the Andromeda Galaxy M31. Much later his measurements would be considered an early indication of the existence of dark matter. After a stint at the Yerkes Observatory and war work at MIT and Caltech, Babcock joined the staff of the <b><a HREF="http://www.mtwilson.edu/">Mt. Wilson</a></b> (soon to be Mt. Wilson and <b><a HREF="http://phobos.caltech.edu/palomarpublic/index.html">Palomar</a></b>) Observatory, in 1946. There he often worked closely with his father, <b><a HREF="../BabcockHD/index.html">Harold Babcock</a></b>. The two were first to measure the distribution of magnetic fields over the solar surface. Horace Babcock invented and built many astronomical instruments, including a ruling engine which produced excellent diffraction gratings, the<b><a HREF="http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/150_hist.html"> solar magnetograph</a></b>, and microphotometers, automatic guiders, and exposure meters for the 100 and 200-inch telescopes. By combining his polarizing analyzer with the spectrograph he discovered magnetic fields in other stars. He developed important models of sunspots and their magnetism, and in 1953 he was the first to propose <a HREF="http://www.mtwilson.edu/ao/"><b>adaptive optics</b></a>. He directed the <b><a HREF="http://www.ociw.edu/ociw/about/">Mt. Wilson and Palomar (later Hale) Observatories</a></b> from 1964 to 1978. During this time he led in founding the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.</p> <p> <b><font SIZE="+1"><font COLOR="#CC6600">Presentation of Bruce medal</font></FONT></b><br> Abell, George W., <a HREF="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1969PASP...81..179A"><i>PASP</i> <b>81</b>, 17983 (1969)</a>. <p> <b><font SIZE="+1"><font COLOR="#CC6600">Other awards</font></FONT></b><br> American Astronomical Society Solar Physics Division, <a HREF="http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/aas_spd/#HALE">George Ellery Hale Prize</a>, 1992, <i>Physics Today</i> <b>45</b>, 7, 80 (1992).<br> National Academy of Sciences, <a HREF="http://www4.nationalacademies.org/nas/nasaward.nsf/0a87c615e9bb822d85256a33005743a6/e78d1211380410e085256a490066b505?OpenDocument">Henry Draper Medal</a>, 1957.<br> Royal Astronomical Society, <a href="http://www.ras.org.uk/html/ras_medals.html#Eddington">Eddington medal</a>, 1958; <a HREF="http://www.ras.org.uk/html/ras_medals.html#Gold">Gold medal</a> 1970, presented by <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1970QJRAS..11...85.">B. Lovell, <i>QJRAS</i> <b>11</b>, 85-87 (1970)</a>. See also <i>Physics Today</i> <b>23</b>, 5, 91 (1970).</p> <p> <b><font SIZE="+1"><font COLOR="#CC6600">Biographical materials</font></FONT></b><br> <i>A Dictionary of Scientists</i> (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 1999).<br> Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, <a href="http://www.ociw.edu/ociw/babcock/">Horace Babcock Memorial Symposium</a><br></p> <p><b><font SIZE="+1"><font COLOR="#CC6600">Obituaries</font></FONT></b><br> Baliunas, Sallie, <i>Mercury</i> <b>32</b>, 6, 45 (Nov/Dec 2003).<br> McFarling, Usha Lee, <i>Los Angeles Times,</i> 3 September 2003<br> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/05/national/05BABC.html">OConnor, Anahad, <i>New York Times,</i> 5 September 2003</a><br> Preston, George W., <i>PASP</I> <b>116</b>, 290-94 (2004) [<a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2004PASP..116..290P&db_key=AST&high=40d9d25edc02525">abstract</a>].<br> </p> <p><b><font SIZE="+1"><font COLOR="#CC6600">Photos</font></FONT></b><br> <a HREF="http://www.aip.org/history/esva/catalog/esva/Babcock_Horace.html">AIP Center for History of Physics</a><br> <a href="http://archives.caltech.edu/photoNet.html">Caltech Archives</a> (4 photos)<br> <a href="http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/150_hist.html">UCLA</a></p> <p><b><font SIZE="+1"><font COLOR="#CC6600">Named after him</font></FONT></b><br> <a HREF="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPNames.html#B">Minor Planet #3167 Babcock</a> (with <a HREF="../BabcockHD/">H.D. Babcock</a>)<br> <p><b><font SIZE="+1"><a HREF="BabcockHWRefs.html" TARGET="main"">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">2004-07-05</a></td></font> </tr> </table></body>