Horace W. Babcock

Horace Welcome Babcock (* September 13 1912 in Pasadena, California, † August 29, 2003 in Santa Barbara, California ) was an American astronomer.

Life and work

Born in California, he studied at the California Institute of Technology ( CalTech ) and the University of California at Berkeley. On the occasion of his doctoral work, he was able to determine the rotation curve of the Andromeda galaxy (M31 ).

He then worked at the Yerkes Observatory tätig.W uring the second world war he worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT ) and at CalTech. 1946 began his long career at the Mount Wilson Observatory. He worked closely with his father, Harold D. Babcock. Both were able to prove the first strong magnetic fields of stars.

Horace Babcock built a variety of astronomical instruments, of which the best known is probably the solar magnetograph. He also developed important models for the so-called sunspots and their magnetism. His other developments included the work led to that atmospheric turbulence not affect the recordings of telescopes on Earth. The happened in 1953 and was a breakthrough for the so-called adaptive optics.

From 1964 to 1978 he was director of the Mount Wilson and Palomar - Observatory. During this time he established beyond the Las Camapanas Observatory in Chile.

Awards

The asteroid 3167 was ( and named his father) after him. The lunar crater of the same name was registered, but only to his father.