Description
This collection deals primarily with the professional
activities of Olin C. Wilson (1909-1994), an astronomer at the Mount Wilson
Observatory, who was most active from the mid-1930s into the 1980s.
Background
Olin Chaddock Wilson, Jr. was born in 1909, and joined the Mount Wilson Observatory
in 1931 as a research assistant, and in 1936 became a staff member. He spent his
entire professional career at Mt. Wilson. Wilson was educated as an undergraduate at
the University of California and in 1934, received the first Ph.D. in Astronomy
awarded by the California Institute of Technology, studying under Paul Merrill
(whose papers are also held by the Huntington Library). Wilson's professional work
was devoted to various phases of spectroscopy, including the stellar radial velocity
program, various investigations of stellar atmospheres and interstellar material,
Wolf-Rayet stars, planetary nebulae, and stellar chromospheres. By intensive
analysis of the H and K lines of ionized calcium he showed that other stars besides
the sun have cycles of activity. With M. K. Vainu Bappu, he found a means of
determining luminosity, and thus distance, of stars from the widths of these two
lines. Wilson started the HK Project, which continues to use Mt. Wilson telescopes
to monitor a number of nearby stars in search of starspot cycles. He also
investigated spectra of nebulae and eclipsing stars. In 1960, he was elected to the
National Academy of Sciences. He was also elected a member of the Division of
Physical Sciences of the National Research Council, and a member of the U.S.A.
National Committee of the International Astronomical Union. After his retirement in
1974, he continued his professional work as a Staff Member Emeritus of the Mount
Wilson and Las Campanas Observatories. In 1984 he was awarded the Bruce Medal, an
award for lifetime achievement in astronomy given by the Astronomical Society of the
Pacific.
Restrictions
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to
quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such
activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is
one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.