Harold Delos Babcock was an American astronomer

Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...

, and the father of Horace W. Babcock

Horace W. Babcock

Horace Welcome Babcock was an American astronomer. He was the son of Harold D. Babcock.He invented and built a number of astronomical instruments, and in 1953 was the first to propose the idea of adaptive optics. He specialized in spectroscopy and the study of magnetic fields of stars...

, of English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 and German ancestry. Educated at the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

, he worked at the Mount Wilson Observatory

Mount Wilson Observatory

The Mount Wilson Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson, a 5,715 foot peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles...

 from 1907 until 1948. He specialized in solar spectroscopy

Spectroscopy

Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between matter and radiated energy. Historically, spectroscopy originated through the study of visible light dispersed according to its wavelength, e.g., by a prism. Later the concept was expanded greatly to comprise any interaction with radiative...

 and mapped the distribution of magnetic fields over the Sun

Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

's surface. With his son he revealed the existence of strong magnetic fields in certain stars. In 1953 he won the Bruce Medal

Bruce Medal

The Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to astronomy. It is named after Catherine Wolfe Bruce, an American patroness of astronomy, and was first awarded in 1898...

.

The crater Babcock

Babcock (crater)

Babcock is a lunar crater that is located on the far side of the Moon. It lies on the northeastern edge of Mare Smythii, to the southeast of Mare Marginis. To the south of Babcock is the crater Purkynĕ, and to the east-northeast lies Erro...

 on the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

 is named after him, as is asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 3167 Babcock

3167 Babcock

3167 Babcock is a main-belt asteroid discovered on September 13, 1955 by Goethe Link Observatory at Brooklyn.- External links :*...

(jointly named after him and his son).

Obituaries

• Obs 88 (1968) 174 (one paragraph)
• QJRAS 10 (1969) 68