John Charles Duncan

John Charles Duncan (born February 8, 1882 in Knightstown , Indiana , † September 10, 1967 in Chula Vista , California ) was an American astronomer .

Life

John Charles Duncan was the son of Daniel Davidson and Naomi, née Jessup, Duncan. He studied at Indiana University and received his Bachelor of Arts there in 1905 . In 1905/1906 he received the first Lawrence Fellowship , endowed by Percival Lowell for Indiana University students, at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff , Arizona, and took part in the photographic search for a trans-Neptunian planet ; in the summer of 1912 he returned to the Lowell Observatory to continue to help with the search. After his Master of Arts in 1906, he began his doctoral studies at the University of California under the director of the Lick Observatory William Wallace Campbell and in 1909 did his dissertation on the Cepheids Y Sagittarii and RT Aurigae .

He was then from 1909 to 1916 a lecturer at Harvard University , from 1911 to 1916 at the same time at Radcliffe College , before he was appointed professor and head of the astronomical faculty at Wellesley College and director of the Whitin Observatory in 1916 . After retiring in 1950, he was a visiting professor at the Steward Observatory for the next twelve years .

Much of his later work was closely related to the Mount Wilson Observatory , which he visited for the first time in 1920/21 and where he spent the summers from 1922 to 1949 as a volunteer. At the Mount Wilson Observatory he took numerous pictures of galaxies and nebulae , researched the extent and filaments of the Crab Nebula and discovered three variable stars in the Triangle Nebula . His textbook on astronomy appeared in the first edition in 1926, in the fifth edition in 1955 and in an abridged edition in 1947.

Duncan was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the American Astronomical Society (Secretary of the same from 1936 to 1939), as well as a member of the International Astronomical Union , since 1938 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science , the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and numerous other scientific Societies. The asteroid 1966 DH , discovered on February 18, 1966 at the Goethe Link Observatory , was named after him.

John Charles Duncan had been married to Katharine Armington Bullard since 1906 and had a daughter with her.

Works (selection)

• The Orbits of the Cepheid variables Y Sagittarii and RT Aurigae; with a Discussion of the Possible Causes of this Type of Stellar Variation . In: Lick Observatory Bulletin . Number 151, 1909, pp. 82–94 , bibcode : 1909LicOB ... 5 ... 82D (English, PhD thesis).
• Astronomy . A text book. Harper & Brothers, London & New York 1927 (English, online ).
• Essentials of Astronomy . Harper & Brothers, New York 1942 (English).

literature

• Sally H. Dieke: Duncan, John Charles . In: Charles Coulston Gillispie (Ed.): Dictionary of Scientific Biography . Volume 4. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1971, p. 249 (English, online ).
• Duncan, John Charles . In: National Cyclopedia of American Biography . Volume 54. James T. White and Co., Clifton, New Jersey 1973, pp. 88-89 (English).
• Rudi Paul Lindner: Duncan, John Charles . In: Thomas Hockey et al. (Ed.): Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers . Volume I (A-L). Springer Science + Business Media, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0 , pp. 315-316 (English).
• Rudi Paul Lindner: Duncan, John Charles . In: Thomas Hockey et al. (Ed.): Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers . Second ed.Springer Science + Business Media, New York 2014, ISBN 978-1-4419-9916-0 , pp. 619–620 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-1-4419-9917-7_387 (English).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lutz D. Schmadel : Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . Third Revised and Enlarged ed. Volume I. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg 1997, ISBN 978-3-662-06617-1 , p.  356 (English).

Web links

• Works by and about John Charles Duncan in the SOA / NASA Astrophysics Data System