Heber Doust Curtis | |
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| Born | (1872-06-27)June 27, 1872 Muskegon, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | January 9, 1942(1942-01-09) (aged 69) Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan,University of Virginia |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | astronomy |
| (23400) A913 CF | February 11, 1913 | MPC |
Heber Doust Curtis (June 27, 1872 – January 9, 1942) was an Americanastronomer. He participated in 11 expeditions for the study ofsolar eclipses,[2] and, as an advocate and theorist that additional galaxies existed outside of the Milky Way, was involved in the 1920Shapley–Curtis Debate concerning the size and galactic structure of the universe.
Curtis was born on June 27, 1872, the elder son of Orson Blair Curtis and Sarah Eliza Doust.[3]
He studied at theUniversity of Michigan and at theUniversity of Virginia, earning a degree in astronomy from the latter.
From 1902 to 1920 Curtis worked atLick Observatory, continuing the survey ofnebulae initiated byKeeler. He headed up theLick southern station in Chile from 1905 until 1909, when he returned to take charge of theCrossley telescope.[4] In 1912 he was elected president of theAstronomical Society of the Pacific.
In 1918 he observedMessier 87 and was the first to notice theastrophysical jet which he described as a "curious straight ray ... apparently connected with the nucleus by a thin line of matter."[5][6]
In 1920 he was appointed director of theAllegheny Observatory. In the same year he participated in theGreat Debate withHarlow Shapley (also called the Shapley–Curtis Debate) on the nature of nebulae andgalaxies, and the size of the universe. Curtis advocated the now-accepted view that other galaxies apart from theMilky Way existed.
Curtis also invented a type of film plate comparator in about 1925, allowing 2 plates, each 8×10 in, to be compared using a set of prisms and placing the plates on stacked and aligned stages rather than next to one another as was the norm, this allowed the body of the device to measure just 60×51 cm. This device is packed in crates and resided at UCOLick Observatory as of Aug 2011.His article describing the device appears in thePublications of the Allegheny Observatory, vol. VIII, no. 2.
In 1930 Curtis was appointed director of the University of Michigan observatories, but the shortage of funds following theGreat Depression prevented the construction of a large reflector he had designed for the university atAnn Arbor. He contributed to develop the McMath–Hulbert private observatory atLake Angelus.
Curtis was an opponent of Albert Einstein'stheory of relativity.[7][8]
He died on January 9, 1942.[2]
The Heber Doust Curtis Memorial Telescope at thePortage Lake Observatory was dedicated in 1950 in Curtis' memory. It no longer operates, but remains as a memorial to Curtis.[9][10][11] A small lunar crater east of the larger crater Picard in Mare Crisium received the official name Curtis.
Ever since Heber Curtis, a University of California astronomer, spied a ray of light shooting out of M87's core in 1918, astronomers have puzzled over the nature and origin of this jet and dozens of others discovered over the years shooting from the cores of active galaxies and quasars.
The symposium is part of the program preceding the dedication tomorrow of the Heber Doust Curtis Memorial Telescope, a $200000 instrument
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