Harold D. Babcock

Harold Delos Babcock ( born January 24, 1882 in Edgerton, Wisconsin, † April 8, 1968 in Pasadena, California ) was an American astronomer.

Babcock studied at the University of California, Berkeley and worked from 1907 to 1948 at Mount Wilson Observatory.

Babcock specializing in the field of spectroscopy of the sun. He mapped the distribution of magnetic fields on the sun's surface.

Together with his son, Horace Welcome Babcock, 1951, he developed the solar magnetograph and was able to strong magnetic fields of stars detected. In 1959, he recognized the periodic reversal of the solar magnetic field.

In 1953 he was awarded the Bruce Medal.