Edward Charles Pickering (July 19, 1846 – February 3, 1919) was an American astronomer and physicist and the older brother of William Henry Pickering. Along with Carl Vogel, Pickering discovered the first spectroscopic binary stars. He wrote Elements of Physical Manipulations (2 vol., 1873–76).
Personal life
Pickering was born at 43 Bowdoin Street in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 19, 1846, to a distinguished, cultivated family consisting of his brother, William Henry Pickering, father, Edward Pickering, and his mother, Charlotte Hammond. Edward's brother, William, was a graduate of MIT and professor of physics and astronomy. Edward was interested in the stars as a boy and constructed his own telescope by the age of 12. Pickering enjoyed his work at the observatory, but he was also enjoyed mountain climbing and bicycling in earlier days and later he was an interested spectator of football games. He was co-founder and first president of the Appalachian Mountain Club. He was also a lover of classic music. During the first world war he was busy trying to devise useful applications to win the war. The Pickering Polaris Attachment was a device used to determine the range of guns. In 1874, Pickering married Lizzie Wadsworth Sparks, whose father was formerly the President of Harvard. Mrs. Pickering died in 1906, and Edward died in 1919.
Education
Pickering was educated at Boston Latin School, and then studied at the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard (now known as the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences), where he received his Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in 1865.
Career and research
Immediately upon graduating from Harvard he was hired as an instructor of mathematics there, and a year later he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to be an assistant professor of physics. Two years later, he was made Thayer Professor of Physics. During the 10 years he was there, he created the first physics lab in America that was designed for students to publish their own findings and research. Pickering named this lab the Rogers Laboratory of Physics and pronounced himself Director of the Laboratory. Later, he served as director of Harvard College Observatory (HCO) from 1877 to his death in 1919, where he made great leaps forward in the gathering of stellar spectra through the use of photography.
Shortly after the death of college doctor and amateur astronomer Henry Draper, an opportunity presented itself for Pickering. Draper's death left the incompletion of his work studying astronomy using photography. Draper had no children to carry on and finish his legacy, so his wife, Mary Anna Draper, planned on finishing his work. Pickering wrote a letter to Mrs. Draper "...pray recollect that if I can in any way advise or aid you, I shall be doing but little to repay Dr. Draper for a friendship which I shall always value, but which can never be replaced." Mrs. Draper urgently responded and soon dropped off her husband's work to Pickering. Pickering concluded that Draper's use of photography in astronomy was very promising opposed to the traditional method of observation and recording using one's eye through instruments. In 1884, a paper on such observations was published with the author "the late Henry Draper." After receiving criticism from Dr. William Huggins, a friend of Dr. Draper, Pickering began to hire more assistants to strengthen Draper's findings. This consequently also strengthened and contributed to Harvard Computers.
In 1882 he started his appeals for international variable star observations. This was met with opposition, but eventually such a cooperation was realized in the Variable Star Section of the British Astronomical Association and the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). Pickering had a good relationship with the AAVSO and received a gold paper knife with precious stones.
In 1882, Pickering developed a method to photograph the spectra of multiple stars simultaneously by putting a large prism in front of the photographic plate. Using this method, Pickering and his team captured images of over 220,000 stars. This immense amount of photographic research has provided scientists for decades with a seemingly endless library containing the history of every visible star's movements. It is said that this research weighs 120 tons due to the size of photographic plates.
He also, along with Williamina Fleming and Annie Jump Cannon designed a stellar classification system based on an alphabetic system for spectral classes that was first known as the Harvard Stellar Classification and became the basis for the Henry Draper Catalog.