Harvard College Observatory

The Harvard College Observatory (or HCO) is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Department of Astronomy of Harvard. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and was founded in 1839. With the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, it forms part of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Between 1847 and 1852 pioneer photographer John Adams Whipple and astronomer William Cranch Bond, director of the Observatory, used Harvard's Great Refractor telescope to produce images of the moon that are remarkable in their clarity of detail and aesthetic power. This was the largest telescope in the world at that time, and their images of the moon took the prize for technical excellence in photography at the 1851 Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace in London. On the night of July 16-17, 1850, Whipple and Bond made the first daguerreotype of a star (Vega).

The Minor Planet Center credits some asteroid discoveries to "Harvard Observatory".

History

Harvard Observatory is historically important to astronomy, as many women including Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin performed pivotal stellar classification research. Cannon and Leavitt were hired initially as "computers" to perform calculations and examine stellar photographs, but later made insightful connections in their research. [http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/03.19/ReachingfortheS.html]

External links

* [http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/hco/ HCO home page]
* [http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/03.19/ReachingfortheS.html Reaching for the Stars: A Century Ago, Women Astronomers At Harvard Made Scientific History]
* [http://cleardarksky.com/c/Bostonkey.html?1 Boston Clear Sky Clock] Forecasts of observing conditions covering HCO.