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Osterbrock (Donald E.) Papers
UA.40
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Donald E. Osterbrock papers
Creator:
Osterbrock, Donald E.
Identifier/Call Number: UA.40
Physical Description:
79 Linear Feet
137 archives boxes, 2 cartons
Date (bulk): 1950-2006
Abstract: This collection contains Dr. Donald E.
Osterbrock's activities as astronomer and science writer, director of the Lick Observatory,
and Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa
Cruz.
Physical Location: Stored offsite at NRLF: Advance notice
is required for access to the papers.
Language of Material:
English .
Collection open for research.
Property rights for this collection reside with the University of California. Literary
rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. The publication
or use of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use for research or
educational purposes requires written permission from the copyright owner. Responsibility
for obtaining permissions, and for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more
information on copyright or to order a reproduction, please visit
guides.library.ucsc.edu/speccoll/reproduction-publication.
Donald E. Osterbrock papers. UA40. Special Collections and Archives, University Library,
University of California, Santa Cruz.
Biography / Administrative History
Donald E. Osterbrock (1924-2007) was the director of Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton in
California, an astronomer, and historian of science. Osterbrock studied the birth of stars
and luminous clouds of gas at the core of galaxies outside the Milky Way known as gaseous
nebulae.
In his textbook for graduate students,
Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active
Galactic Nuclei
(1989), he explained the phenomenon and also described events
going on at the center of external galaxies. The book includes descriptions of quasars, the
distant and massive black holes whose brightness can sometimes be detected through optical
telescopes from Earth. In 2006, the text was published in a revised edition with another
astronomer, Gary J. Ferland.
In the early 1950s, while still a graduate student at the University of Chicago, Dr.
Osterbrock helped determine the spiral shape of the Milky Way in observations at the Yerkes
Observatory in Wisconsin. Working with William W. Morgan and others, he used a wide-angle
camera to detect clouds of glowing hydrogen gas and trace the spiraling arms of the galaxy.
The landmark discovery was announced at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in
1951.
Late in his career, Dr. Osterbrock augmented his research with historical studies and
intellectual biographies of prominent astronomers of the 19th and 20th centuries. He wrote
profiles of James E. Keeler and Walter Baade as well as a book-length study,
Pauper
and Prince: Ritchey, Hale and Big American Telescopes
(1993).
Donald Edward Osterbrock was born in Cincinnati on July 13, 1924. He earned his doctorate
in astronomy from the University of Chicago in 1952.
After teaching briefly at Princeton and the California Institute of Technology, he joined
the University of Wisconsin as an assistant professor of astronomy in 1958. Dr. Osterbrock
was named a professor of astronomy at Wisconsin in 1961 and remained until 1973.
He was director of Lick Observatory from 1973 to 1981, and a professor of astronomy and
astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, from 1973 to 1992. He became a
professor emeritus there in 1993.
He served as president of the American Astronomical Society from 1988 to 1990. The Royal
Astronomical Society awarded him a gold medal in 1997.
Dr. Osterbrock died on Jan. 11, 2007 in Santa Cruz, Calif. He was 82.
Excerpt,
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/obituaries/27osterbrock.html
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains correspondence, manuscripts, meeting files and minutes, notebooks,
biographies, obituaries, photographs, negatives, reprints, research files, and observing
records.
The collection adheres to the original order organized by the creator. Original folder
titles were retained when possible.
Note to the researcher: The collection was received in multiple
accruals and processed by MPLP standards. The first accrual was minimally processed and was
housed off-site when processing began on the second and third accrual. Information on a
particular person or subject may be found in more than one location in the finding aid.
- Processed by:
- UCSC Special Collections and Archives
- Date Completed:
- 2015
- Encoded by:
- Debra Roussopoulos
UA36 Lick Observatory Records
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Astronomy--United States--History
Faculty Papers
Osterbrock, Donald E.