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Edward Charles Pickering

 

 
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Edward Charles Pickering
 
 
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Edward Charles Pickering (July 19 1846–February 3 1919) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 astronomer
Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies Celestial body such as planets, stars, and Galaxy.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws....
 and physicist
Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many Physics#Major fields of physics spanning all length scales: from atom particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole ....
, brother of William Henry Pickering
William Henry Pickering

William Henry Pickering was an United States astronomer, brother of Edward Charles Pickering....
.

Along with Carl Vogel
Hermann Carl Vogel

Hermann Carl Vogel was a Germany astronomer. He was born in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony.Vogel pioneered the use of the spectroscope in astronomy....
, Pickering discovered the first spectroscopic binary stars. He wrote Elements of Physical Manipulations (2 vol., 1873–76).

Pickering attended Boston Latin School
Boston Latin School

The Boston Latin School is a public education Magnet school founded on April 23, 1635, in Boston, Massachusetts, making it the List of the oldest public high schools in the United States existing school in the United States....
, and received his B.S. from Harvard in 1865. Later, he served as director of Harvard College Observatory
Harvard College Observatory

The Harvard College Observatory is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomy research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy....
 from 1877 to his death in 1919, where he made great leaps forward in the gathering of stellar spectra through the use of photography.






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Edward Charles Pickering (July 19 1846–February 3 1919) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 astronomer
Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies Celestial body such as planets, stars, and Galaxy.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws....
 and physicist
Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many Physics#Major fields of physics spanning all length scales: from atom particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole ....
, brother of William Henry Pickering
William Henry Pickering

William Henry Pickering was an United States astronomer, brother of Edward Charles Pickering....
.

Along with Carl Vogel
Hermann Carl Vogel

Hermann Carl Vogel was a Germany astronomer. He was born in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony.Vogel pioneered the use of the spectroscope in astronomy....
, Pickering discovered the first spectroscopic binary stars. He wrote Elements of Physical Manipulations (2 vol., 1873–76).

Pickering attended Boston Latin School
Boston Latin School

The Boston Latin School is a public education Magnet school founded on April 23, 1635, in Boston, Massachusetts, making it the List of the oldest public high schools in the United States existing school in the United States....
, and received his B.S. from Harvard in 1865. Later, he served as director of Harvard College Observatory
Harvard College Observatory

The Harvard College Observatory is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomy research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy....
 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 many women to work for him, including Annie Jump Cannon
Annie Jump Cannon

Annie Jump Cannon was an United States astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification....
, Henrietta Swan Leavitt
Henrietta Swan Leavitt

Henrietta Swan Leavitt was an United States astronomer, and the deaf daughter of a Congregational church minister. A graduate of Radcliffe College, Leavitt went to work in 1893 at the Harvard College Observatory in a menial capacity as a human computer, assigned to count images on photographic plates....
, and Antonia Maury
Antonia Maury

Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Maury was an United States astronomer who published an important early catalog of stellar spectra....
. These women, who came to be known as "Pickering's Harem" by the scientific community, made several important discoveries at HCO.

In 1876 he co-founded the Appalachian Mountain Club
Appalachian Mountain Club

The Appalachian Mountain Club is one of the United States' oldest outdoor groups. Created in 1876 to explore and preserve the White Mountains in New Hampshire, it has expanded throughout the northeastern U.S., with 12 chapters stretching from Maine to Washington, D.C....
.

In 1911 he co-founded the American Association of Variable Star Observers
American Association of Variable Star Observers

Since its founding in 1911, the American Association of Variable Star Observers has coordinated, collected, evaluated, analyzed, published, and archived variable star observations made largely by amateur astronomy and makes the records available to professional astronomers, researchers, and educators....
 (AAVSO) with William T. Olcott
William Tyler Olcott

William Tyler Olcott was an United states lawyer and amateur astronomer.In 1909, after attending a lecture by Edward Pickering, he developed an interest in observing variable stars....
.

Publications


Honors

Awards
  • Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
    Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society

    The Gold Medal is the highest award of the Royal Astronomical Society....
     (1886 and 1901)
  • Henry Draper Medal
    Henry Draper Medal

    The Henry Draper Medal was established by the widow of Henry Draper, and is awarded by the U.S. United States National Academy of Sciences for contributions to astrophysics....
     (1888)
  • Bruce Medal
    Bruce Medal

    The Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to astronomy....
     (1908)
Named after him
  • The crater Pickering
    Pickering (lunar crater)

    Pickering is a small moon impact crater located to the northeast of the worn walled plain Hipparchus in the central region of the Moon. It lies to the northeast of the crater Horrocks , which lies within Hipparchus....
     on the Moon
    Moon

    The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
  • The crater Pickering Mars.
  • Asteroid
    Asteroid

    Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids....
     784 Pickeringia
    784 Pickeringia

    784 Pickeringia is a minor planet orbiting the Sun.External links...
(all jointly named after him and his brother William Henry Pickering
William Henry Pickering

William Henry Pickering was an United States astronomer, brother of Edward Charles Pickering....
)

External links


Obituaries