Leon Campbell
Encyclopedia
Leon Campbell was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.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...

.

He is noted for his observations of variable star
Variable star
A star is classified as variable if its apparent magnitude as seen from Earth changes over time, whether the changes are due to variations in the star's actual luminosity, or to variations in the amount of the star's light that is blocked from reaching Earth...

s at the Harvard College Observatory
Harvard College Observatory
The Harvard College Observatory is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and was founded in 1839...

. He served as Recorder of Observations for the AAVSO from its earliest days in 1915, and continued until his retirement in the 1940s. (The title was later changed to Director of the AAVSO.) He also published a number of papers and a pair of books on the topic of variable stars.

Awards and honors

  • Pickering Memorial Astronomer, circa 1931.
  • AAVSO Merit Award, 1944.
  • The lunar crater Campbell
    Campbell (lunar crater)
    Campbell is a large lunar crater that is located in the northern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon. It lies to the southwest of the walled plain D'Alembert, an even larger formation. If Campbell were located on the near side of the Moon as seen from the Earth, it would form one of the largest...

     is co-named for him and William W. Campbell
    William Wallace Campbell
    William Wallace Campbell was an American astronomer, and director of Lick Observatory from 1900 to 1930. He specialized in spectroscopy.-Biography:...

    .
  • Recipient of honorary degree of Master of Arts from Harvard University, 1949.
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