Herbert Alonzo Howe

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Herbert Alonzo Howe ( November 22, 1858 - November 2, 1926 ) was an American astronomer and educator.

biography

Herbert Alonzo Howe was born in Brockport, New York, to Alonzo J. Howe, Professor at the Old University of Chicago , and Julia M. Osgood. After witnessing the spectacular Leonid meteor shower of 1866, his interest in stars developed during his youth. He enrolled at the Old University of Chicago, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1875 at the age of sixteen . He started as an assistant at the Cincinnati Observatory , working mainly on orbits calculation and the observation of binary stars . 1877 received the Master of Arts at the University of Cincinnati under Professor Ormond Stone .

Long working hours led to health problems and in 1880 he had two pulmonary hemorrhage diseases, which is why he looked around for other climatic conditions. Fortunately, the Chancellor of the recently founded University of Denver in Denver (Colorado) offered him a teaching position. The move to Colorado improved his health significantly and so he decided to stay there despite the lack of astronomical observation facilities. Howe became a professor of mathematics and astronomy, making it the university's first astronomy professor.

In 1884 he married Fannie Shattuck, the daughter of the State Inspector of Education. In the same year he received the degree of Doctor of Science from the university with a thesis on solutions to the Kepler problem of determining orbits. In 1888 the university received a donation of $ 50,000 from amateur astronomer Humphrey Chamberlin, which Howe used to fund an observatory . Construction around the lens ( aperture 20 inch = 0.5 m) bought from Alvin Clarke & Sons began in 1889. At the time of completion, the refractor telescope was the fifth largest instrument of its kind in the United States. Howe was appointed director of the Chamberlin Observatory in 1892 , and the first experimental observations began in July 1894.

Most of Howe's work at the observatory consisted of observing faint nebulae from the New General Catalog , measuring binary stars, and determining the position of comets and asteroids. In 1892 he was appointed dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, which he completed until 1926 but unfortunately limited his time for astronomy. In 1899 he served as the acting chancellor of the university. In 1910 he received his doctorate (LLD) from the University of Denver and in 1913 from Colorado College . In 1926 his health deteriorated and he began to incorporate his successor Albert William Recht .

Works

  • A study of the sky (1896)
  • Elements of descriptive astronomy (1897)

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e George Derby, James Terry White: The National Cyclopedia of American Biography (1898) , Volume 8, Page 157
  2. ^ A b D. H. Menzel : Herbert Alonzo Howe, 1858-1926 . In: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific . 38, No. 226, December 1926, p. 379. bibcode : 1926PASP ... 38..379M . doi : 10.1086 / 123640 .
  3. ↑ a b Dinsmore Age : Herbert Alonzo Howe . In: Popular Astronomy . 1927, p. 391. bibcode : 1927PA ..... 35..191A .
  4. ^ A b c Steve Fisher: A Brief History of South Denver and University Park , The History Press (2012), pages 42-45, ISBN 1-6094-9233-1
  5. ↑ a b H. J. Howe et al .: "Denver's Pioneer Astronomer: Herbert Alonso Howe (1858-1926)", Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society (1999), Volume 31, Page 840
personal data
SURNAME Howe, Herbert Alonzo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Howe, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronomer and educator
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Brockport (New York)
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1926