Harvard College Observatory

Harvard College Observatory

Harvard College Observatory, circa 1899
Alternative names	HCO
Organization	Harvard University
Observatory code	802
Location	Cambridge, Massachusetts, US
Coordinates	42°22′53″N 71°07′42″W / 42.3815°N 71.1284°W / 42.3815; -71.1284
Altitude	24 m (79 ft)
Established	1839
Website	www.cfa.harvard.edu/hco
Telescopes	Harvard Great Refractor
Location of Harvard College Observatory
Related media on Commons
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The Harvard College Observatory (HCO) 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, United States, and was founded in 1839. With the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, it forms part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.

HCO houses a collection of approximately 500,000 astronomical plates taken between the mid-1880s and 1989 (with a gap from 1953–1968).^[1] This 100-year coverage is a unique resource for studying temporal variations in the universe. The Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard project is digitally scanning and archiving these photographic plates.^[2]

History

In 1839, the Harvard Corporation voted to appoint

Harvard College Observatory is historically important to astronomy, as many women including Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Williamina Fleming, and Florence Cushman performed pivotal stellar classification research. Cannon, Leavitt and Cushman were hired initially as "computers" to perform calculations and examine stellar photographs, but later made insightful connections in their research.^[5]

Publications

From 1898 to 1926, a series of Bulletins were issued containing many of the major discoveries of the period. These were then replaced by Announcement Cards which continued to be issued until 1952.

In 1908, the observatory published the

• William Cranch Bond 1839–1859
• George Phillips Bond 1859–1865
• Joseph Winlock
  1866–1875
• Edward Charles Pickering 1877–1919
• Solon Irving Bailey 1919–1921 (Acting Director)
• Harlow Shapley 1921–1952
• Donald H. Menzel
  1952–1953 (Acting Director); 1954–1966 (Director)
• Leo Goldberg 1966–1970
• Fred Whipple
  1955-1973
• George B. Field 1973-1982 (founding director of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian)
• Irwin Shapiro 1983–2004^[6]
• Charles Alcock 2004–2022^[6]
• Lisa Kewley 2022–present^[7]

See also

• Harvard Computers
• Sears Tower – Harvard Observatory
• The Minor Planet Center credits many asteroid discoveries to "Harvard Observatory."
• See List of largest optical refracting telescopes, for other 'great refractors'

References

Further reading

• Dava Sobel (2016). The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars. Viking.
  ISBN 978-0670016952
  .

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harvard College Observatory.

Wikisource has the text of the 1921 Collier's Encyclopedia article Harvard Observatory.

• HCO home page
• Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
• Harvard College Observatory Bulletins
• Harvard College Announcement Cards