Nationality American Siblings William Henry Pickering | Role Astronomer Name Edward Pickering | |
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Born July 19, 1846Boston, Massachusetts ( 1846-07-19 ) Known for spectroscopic binary stars Notable awards Henry Draper Medal (1888)Valz Prize (1888)Bruce Medal (1908)Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1886 and 1901) Books Elements of Physical Manipulation, by Edward C. Pickering,... Awards | ||
Harvard's 'computers': the women who measured the stars
Edward Charles Pickering (July 19, 1846 – February 3, 1919) was an American astronomer and physicist as well as the older brother of William Henry Pickering.
Contents
Along with Carl Vogel, Pickering discovered the first spectroscopic binary stars. He wrote Elements of Physical Manipulations (2 vol., 1873–76).
Biography
Pickering attended Boston Latin School, and received his B.S. from Harvard in 1865. Soon after graduating from Harvard, Pickering taught physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Later, he served as director of Harvard College Observatory from 1877 to his death in 1919, where he made great leaps forward in the gathering of stellar spectra through the use of photography.
At Harvard, he recruited over 80 women to work for him, including Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, and Antonia Maury. These women, the Harvard Computers (also described as "Pickering's Harem" by the scientific community at the time), made several important discoveries at HCO. Leavitt's discovery of the period-luminosity relationship for Cepheids, published by Pickering, would prove the foundation for the modern understanding of cosmological distances.
In 1876 he co-founded the Appalachian Mountain Club.
Discoveries
In 1882, Pickering developed a method to photograph the spectra of multiple stars simultaneously by putting a large prism in front of the photographic plate.
He also, along with Williamina Fleming and Annie Jump Cannon designed a stellar classification system based on an alphabetic system for spectral classes that was first known as the Harvard Stellar Classification and became the basis for the Henry Draper Catalog.
Pickering is credited for making the Harvard College Observatory known and respected around the world, and it continues today to be a well-respected observatory and program.
Honors
Awards and honors
Named after him
(all jointly named after him and his brother William Henry Pickering)