John Stanley Plaskett

Template:Short description Template:Infobox scientist John Stanley Plaskett Template:Post-nominals<ref name="frs">Template:Cite journal</ref> (November 17, 1865 – October 17, 1941) was a Canadian astronomer.

Career

He worked as a machinist, and was offered a job as a mechanician at the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto, constructing apparatus and assisting with demonstrations during lectures. He found this so interesting that at the age of 30 he enrolled as an undergraduate in mathematics and physics. He stayed at the university until 1903, doing research on color photography.

His formal astronomical career did not start until 1903, when he was appointed to the staff at Dominion Observatory in Ottawa, Ontario. He measured radial velocities and studied spectroscopic binaries, and performed the first detailed analysis of galactic structure.<ref>"Died this day", The Globe and Mail, October 16, 2004; page F-10</ref> His mechanical background was very useful for constructing various instruments. He became first director of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, British Columbia in 1917 (not to be confused with the old Dominion Observatory in Ottawa).

Plaskett at the Fourth Conference International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research at Mount Wilson Observatory, 1910

Family and legacy

His son, Harry Hemley Plaskett, also pursued a very successful career in astronomy, winning the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1963, thereby making the Plasketts one of the very few families to boast more than one Medal winner. <ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

An authoritative biography of JS Plaskett was published in 2018,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> coinciding with the centennial of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory.

Honours

Awards

• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1930)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Rumford Prize (1930)<ref name=Rumford>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Bruce Medal (1932)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences (1934)<ref name=Draper>Template:Cite web</ref>
• CBE

Honors

• Elected International Member of the American Philosophical Society (1930)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Named after him

• NRC-HIA Plaskett Fellowship<ref>NRC-HIA Plaskett Fellowship / Bourse Plaskett de l'IHA-CNRC Template:Webarchive at plaskett.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca</ref>
• The crater Plaskett on the Moon
• Mount Plaskett<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• the Plaskett Medal<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Asteroid 2905 Plaskett (with his son H.H. Plaskett)
• Plaskett's star
• Plaskett Place (street on which he built his home, in Esquimalt, British Columbia)

External links

Obituaries

• MNRAS 102 (1942) 70
• Obs 64 (1941) 183 (one paragraph)
• PASP 53 (1941) 323