Alvan Clark (March 8, 1804 – August 19, 1887), born in
AshfieldAshfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,800 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...
,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
, the descendant of a Cape Cod whaling family of
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
ancestry,
http://www.nndb.com/people/702/000167201/ was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
astronomerAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
and
telescopeA telescope is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic radiation. The first known practically functioning telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century...
maker. He was a portrait painter and engraver, but at the age of 40 become involved in telescope making. Using glass blanks made by
Chance BrothersChance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands , in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology....
of Birmingham and Feil-Mantois of Paris, his firm
Alvan Clark & SonsAlvan Clark & Sons was an American maker of optics that became famous for crafting lenses for some of the largest refracting telescopes of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries...
ground lenses for
refracting telescopeA refracting or refractor telescope is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image...
s, including the largest in the world at the time: the at
Dearborn ObservatoryThe Dearborn Observatory is an astronomical observatory, located on the Evanston campus of Northwestern University. The observatory was originally constructed in 1888. In the summer of 1939, Dearborn Observatory had to be moved to make way for the construction of the Technological Institute...
at the
Old University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago, now known as the Old University of Chicago, was a Baptist college founded in 1857 by Stephen Douglas. It eventually failed in 1886, and was succeeded by the present University of Chicago, created with funds from John D. Rockefeller...
(the lens was originally intended for Ole Miss), the two telescopes at the
United States Naval ObservatoryThe United States Naval Observatory is one of the oldest scientific agencies in the United States, with a primary mission to produce Positioning, Navigation, and Timing for the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Department of Defense...
and
McCormick ObservatoryThe McCormick Observatory is one of the astronomical observatories operated by the Astronomy Department of the University of Virginia and is situated just outside of Charlottesville, Virginia in Albemarle County on the summit of Mount Jefferson . It is named after Leander J. McCormick, who...
, the at
Pulkovo ObservatoryThe Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory , the principal astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, located 19 km south of Saint Petersburg on Pulkovo Heights . It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments.The...
(destroyed in the
Siege of LeningradThe Siege of Leningrad, also known as The Leningrad Blockade was an unsuccessful military operation by the Axis powers to capture Leningrad during World War II. The siege started at 8 September 1941, when the last land connection to the city was severed...
; only the lens survives), the telescope at
Lick ObservatoryThe Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, USA...
(still third-largest) and later the at
Yerkes ObservatoryYerkes Observatory, is an astronomical observatory operated by the University of Chicago in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. The observatory, which calls itself "the birthplace of modern astrophysics,", was founded in 1897 by George Ellery Hale and financed by Charles T. Yerkes...
, which remains the largest successful refracting telescope in the world.
Alvan Clark (March 8, 1804 – August 19, 1887), born in
AshfieldAshfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,800 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...
,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
, the descendant of a Cape Cod whaling family of
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
ancestry,
http://www.nndb.com/people/702/000167201/ was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
astronomerAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
and
telescopeA telescope is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic radiation. The first known practically functioning telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century...
maker. He was a portrait painter and engraver, but at the age of 40 become involved in telescope making. Using glass blanks made by
Chance BrothersChance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands , in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology....
of Birmingham and Feil-Mantois of Paris, his firm
Alvan Clark & SonsAlvan Clark & Sons was an American maker of optics that became famous for crafting lenses for some of the largest refracting telescopes of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries...
ground lenses for
refracting telescopeA refracting or refractor telescope is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image...
s, including the largest in the world at the time: the at
Dearborn ObservatoryThe Dearborn Observatory is an astronomical observatory, located on the Evanston campus of Northwestern University. The observatory was originally constructed in 1888. In the summer of 1939, Dearborn Observatory had to be moved to make way for the construction of the Technological Institute...
at the
Old University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago, now known as the Old University of Chicago, was a Baptist college founded in 1857 by Stephen Douglas. It eventually failed in 1886, and was succeeded by the present University of Chicago, created with funds from John D. Rockefeller...
(the lens was originally intended for Ole Miss), the two telescopes at the
United States Naval ObservatoryThe United States Naval Observatory is one of the oldest scientific agencies in the United States, with a primary mission to produce Positioning, Navigation, and Timing for the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Department of Defense...
and
McCormick ObservatoryThe McCormick Observatory is one of the astronomical observatories operated by the Astronomy Department of the University of Virginia and is situated just outside of Charlottesville, Virginia in Albemarle County on the summit of Mount Jefferson . It is named after Leander J. McCormick, who...
, the at
Pulkovo ObservatoryThe Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory , the principal astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, located 19 km south of Saint Petersburg on Pulkovo Heights . It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments.The...
(destroyed in the
Siege of LeningradThe Siege of Leningrad, also known as The Leningrad Blockade was an unsuccessful military operation by the Axis powers to capture Leningrad during World War II. The siege started at 8 September 1941, when the last land connection to the city was severed...
; only the lens survives), the telescope at
Lick ObservatoryThe Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, USA...
(still third-largest) and later the at
Yerkes ObservatoryYerkes Observatory, is an astronomical observatory operated by the University of Chicago in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. The observatory, which calls itself "the birthplace of modern astrophysics,", was founded in 1897 by George Ellery Hale and financed by Charles T. Yerkes...
, which remains the largest successful refracting telescope in the world. One of Clark's sons,
Alvan Graham ClarkAlvan Graham Clark , born in Fall River, Massachusetts, was an American astronomer and telescope-maker. He was the son of Alvan Clark, founder of Alvan Clark & Sons....
, discovered the dim companion of
SiriusSirius is the brightest star in the night sky with a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. The name Sirius is derived from the Ancient Greek Σείριος. The star has the Bayer designation α Canis Majoris...
. His other son was
George Bassett ClarkGeorge Bassett Clark was an American instrument maker & astronomer.Born in Lowell, Massachusetts and educated at Phillips Academy, Andover, he was the son of Alvan Clark, part of a family of refracting telescope makers in the 19th century...
; both sons were partners in the firm.
Two
cratersIn the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
bear his name. The
ClarkClark is a lunar crater that lies in the southern hemisphere of the Moon's far side. It is located midway between the larger walled plain Van der Waals to the south and the similar-sized crater Pizzetti to the north....
on the
MoonThe Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is , about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system is located at about —a quarter the Earth's...
is joinly named for him and his son, Alvan Graham Clark, and one on
MarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface....
is named in his honor.
See also