Horace W. Babcock AKA Horace Welcome Babcock Born: 13-Sep-1912 Birthplace: Pasadena, CA Died: 29-Aug-2003 Location of death: Santa Barbara, CA Cause of death: unspecified
Gender: Male Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Astronomer Nationality: United States Executive summary: Adaptive optics and the Babcock Model In the early 1950s, Horace W. Babcock was the first astrophysicist to propose adaptive optics, a methodology that provides real-time corrections for atmospheric disturbances of wavefronts. In 1961 he offered a qualitative model to explain the dynamics of the outer layers of the sun, now known as the Babcock Model. Beginning in the early 1970s, he was among the first astronomers to address the challenge of urban glare, proposing construction of what became the Las Campanas Observatory in northern Chile, a location selected for its seclusion from light pollution. Working with his father, astronomer Harold D. Babcock, he invented the solar magnetograph, a scientific instrument that allowed measurement of magnetic fields on the surface of the sun to unprecedented precision. Father: Harold D. Babcock (astronomer, b. 24-Jan-1882, d. 8-Apr-1968) Mother: Mary Henderson Babcock (m. 1907) Wife: Elizabeth Aubrey Babcock (three children) Daughter: Ann Babcock Son: Bruce Babcock Son: Kenneth Babcock
University: BS, California Institute of Technology (1934) University: PhD, University of California at Berkeley (1938) Scholar: Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago Scholar: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Scholar: California Institute of Technology Scholar: Mt. Wilson Observatory (1946-64) Administrator: Director of Mt. Wilson Observatory (1964-78) Administrator: Director of Palomar Observatory, California Institute of Technology (1964-78)
Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal 1970 Bruce Medal 1969 Eddington Medal 1958 Henry Draper Medal 1957 American Academy of Arts and Sciences American Astronomical Society American Philosophical Society National Academy of Sciences Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society Asteroid Namesake 3167 Babcock (namesake shared with father)
Author of books:
The Rotation of the Andromeda Nebula (1939) A Catalog of Magnetic Stars (1958)
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