Science
Edward Charles Pickering
Harvard observatory director
Also known as Edward C. Pickering
Photograph · Image credit
Who they are
Edward Charles Pickering was an astronomer and physicist who directed Harvard College Observatory from 1877 until 1919. He issued the 1912 circular reporting the period–brightness relation for variable stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The circular explicitly credits Henrietta Leavitt with preparing the analysis.
His profile distinguishes institutional publication responsibility from Leavitt’s research credit.
Selected contributions
- Issued and signed the circular while explicitly crediting Leavitt’s preparation.Source ↗
Primary records
Academic paper · 1912
Periods of 25 Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
Leavitt’s analysis relates the periods and brightnesses of 25 Small Magellanic Cloud variables, using their roughly common distance. Pickering issued the circular, whose opening credits her preparation; an absolute calibration remained to be supplied.
Reading scope & citation
Reuses documented prior inspection: First and last pages visually inspected as screenshots; the middle table/graph page not separately audited.
In the timeline
Biography sources & portrait credit
- Periods of 25 Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, Harvard College Observatory Circular 173 ↗Harvard College Observatory; scan hosted by University of Sheffield
- Edward Charles Pickering ↗Wolbach Library, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
Portrait credit
Unknown (Mondadori Publishers). Public domain (Commons file-specific copyright declaration). Via Wikimedia Commons.
Photograph. Cropped to 4:5, resized to 320 × 400 and converted to WebP.
Image source & identification ↗ · Public domain (Commons file-specific copyright declaration) ↗
