Draper, Henry (1837–1882)
American pioneer of astronomical spectroscopy
who established the observing techniques and program for the work that would
bear his name when published, seven years after his early death. The son
of John William Draper, he trained to be
a medical doctor but, because he completed all of his medical courses at
New York University by the age of 20, he traveled in Europe for a year until
he was old enough to graduate. In Ireland he visited, and was greatly influenced
by, the Third Earl of Rosse, William Parson.
Subsequently, he wove his interests in telescope-making and photography,
developed during his travels, into his professional career. When he returned
from Europe, Draper began preparing his own glass mirror, which he installed
in his new observatory on his father's estate at Hastings on Hudson, New
York. He started his astronomical research career by making preliminary
studies of the spectra of the more common elements and photographing the
solar spectrum. By 1873 he had produced a spectrograph
that was similar to the visual spectroscope of William Huggins;
he clarified the spectral lines by using
a slit and incorporating a reference spectra so that elements could be identified
more easily. The spectroscopic studies of Huggins and Norman Lockyer
in Europe stimulated Draper's research and during the last years of his
life he worked toward acquiring high quality spectra of celestial objects.
After his untimely death, from pleurisy, his widow established a fund to
further support a spectral studies program. In 1886 a team at Harvard
College Observatory began the program to establish a useful classification
scheme for stars and a catalogue of spectra. The Harvard project, named
the Henry Draper Catalogue,
completed in 1897, resulted in the first comprehensive classification of
stars according to their spectra.
Related category
• ASTRONOMERS
AND ASTROPHYSICISTS
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