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.<ref name="nndb">Template:Cite web</ref> He was born in Edgerton, Wisconsin, before completing high school in Los Angeles and was accepted to the University of California, Berkeley in 1901.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He worked at the Mount Wilson Observatory from 1907 until 1948.<ref name="nndb" /> He specialized in solar spectroscopy and precisely mapped the distribution of magnetic fields over the Sun's surface, working alongside his son.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1953 he won the Bruce Medal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Babcock died of a heart attack in Pasadena, California at age 86.<ref name="Obit">Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref>

The crater Babcock on the Moon is named after him, as is asteroid 3167 Babcock (jointly named after him and his son).

External links

• National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir

Obituaries

• Obs 88 (1968) 174 (one paragraph)
• QJRAS 10 (1969) 68

Template:US-astronomer-stub