Edison Pettit

Edison Pettit ( born September 22, 1889 in Peru, Nemaha County, Nebraska; † 6 May 1962 Tucson, Arizona ) was an American astronomer.

Life

He was born in the town of Peru, Nebraska. From 1914 to 1918 he taught astronomy at Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas. In 1920 he received his doctorate from the University of Chicago.

Shortly thereafter, he joined the staff at the Mount Wilson Observatory. He specialized initially in solar astronomy and constructed his own thermocouples. He also undertook visual observations of Mars and Jupiter. Even after his retirement, he made further in his private workshop spectrograph for a variety of observatories.

The lunar crater Pettit and Pettit crater Mars are named after him.

He is the father of Aden Meinel.