X-Nico

7 unusual facts about Harvard College Observatory


Andrew Ainslie Common

After Common's death the telescope with its two 60 inch mirrors and other secondary optics was purchased from his estate and installed at the Harvard College Observatory.

Communication Moon Relay

Menzell was a staff member of the Harvard College Observatory and a former United States Navy Reserve commander, who proposed that the Navy undertake a program to use the Moon as a secure communications satellite.

Harvard College Observatory

Between 1847 and 1852 Bond and pioneer photographer John Adams Whipple used the Great Refractor telescope to produce images of the moon that are remarkable in their clarity of detail and aesthetic power.

In 1839, the Harvard Corporation voted to appoint William Cranch Bond, a prominent Boston clockmaker, as "Astronomical Observer to the University" (at no salary).

Hertzsprung–Russell diagram

In the late 19th century large-scale photographic spectroscopic surveys of stars were performed at Harvard College Observatory, producing spectral classifications for tens of thousands of stars, culminating ultimately in the Henry Draper Catalog.

The Quantum Rose

The Quantum Rose is an allegory to the mathematical and physical processes of coupled-channel quantum scattering theory and as such is based on Asaro's doctoral work in chemical physics, with thesis advisor Alexander Dalgarno at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The Telescope

Publishing duties were assumed jointly by the Harvard College Observatory and the Bond Astronomical Club, under the editorship of Donald H. Menzel.


Catherine Wolfe Bruce

Between 1889 and 1899 she donated funds to the Harvard College Observatory (U.S.A.), Yerkes Observatory (U.S.A.) and Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl (Germany), run by Max Wolf at the time, to buy new telescopes at each of those institutes.

John Adams Whipple

Between 1847 and 1852 Whipple and astronomer William Cranch Bond, director of the Harvard College Observatory, used Harvard's Great Refractor telescope to produce images of the moon that are remarkable in their clarity of detail and aesthetic power.


see also

4776 Luyi

4776 Luyi (1975 VD) is a main-belt asteroid discovered on November 3, 1975 by Harvard University researchers at the Harvard College Observatory.The asteroid is named for a town in the eastern Henan province of China that was the birthplace of Laotze, founder of Taoism.

Eberhard Hopf

In 1930 he received a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation to study classical mechanics with George Birkhoff at Harvard, but his appointment was at the Harvard College Observatory.