- Hale, George E. (1868-1938) - discovered the magnetic
properties of sunspots in 1908. He also founded the observatory
at Mt. Wilson.
- Halley, Edmond (1656-1742) - the second Astronomer Royal
of England. He attempted to measure the Earth/Sun distance using
the transit of Venus. He also correctly predicted the return of
the comet that bears his name.
- Hell, Abbe Maximillian (1720-1792) - a Jesuit priest
who became the director of the Vienna Observatory in 1755. For
36 years he published yearly epheremides and in 1761 he observed
the transit of Venus. Later he was falsely accused of adjusting
his measurements of the transits in order to match other observations.
- Henderson, Thomas (1798-1844) - the second director of
the Royal Cape Observatory and later the first Astronomer Royal
of Scotland. Two months after Bessel published the parallax of
the star 61 Cygni, Henderson announced he had found the parallax
of the star Alpha Centauri.
- Herschel, Caroline (1750-1848) - sister and assistant
to William Herschel. In 1786 she discovered the first of eight
comets. After the death of her brother she published the catalog
of his observations.
- Herschel, John (1792-1871)- son of William Herschel who
continued his fathers work in astronomy. He spent part of his
life at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa measuring the stars
of the Southern Hemisphere. He eventually became president of
the Royal Astronomical Society.
- Herschel, William (1738-1822) - creator of some of the
best (and largest) reflecting telescopes of the eighteenth century.
He was determined to map the entire night sky of the Northern
Hemisphere. In doing so in 1781 he discovered the planet Uranus.
His observations of double stars proved for the first time that
they were gravitationally linked.
- Hertzsprung, Ejnar (1873-1967) - in 1911 plotted the
first two-dimensional diagram of the absolute magnitude versus
spectral type for stars. In 1913 it was also independently created
by Henry Norris Russell. The diagram today is called the Hertzsprung-Russell
(H-R) Diagram and is an invaluable tool to astronomers.
- Hevelius, Johannes (1611-1687) - published one of the
first maps of the Moon in 1647 titled Selenographia, many
of the labels he applied to the features are still in use today.
After his death a celestial atlas he created was published which
included many new constellation several which are still in use
today.
- Hooke, Robert (1635-1703) - English scientist and inventor.
He attempted to measure the parallax of the star Gamma Draconis
by using a telescopic devise of his invention named the "Archimedean
Engine". He was never able to correctly determine the parallax.
- Horrocks, Jeremiah (1618-1641) - English astronomer and
one of only two people known to have viewed the transit of Venus
on December 4, 1639.
- Hubble, Edwin (1889-1953) - American astronomer who using
the Mt. Wilson Observatory studied the motions of galaxies. In
1929 he announced what has since been called "Hubble's Law"
which relates the distances of galaxies to the speed in which
they are traveling. Relating them is a term called the "Hubble
Constant".
- Huggins, Sir William (1824-1910) - English astronomer
who was one of the first scientist to use spectroscopy in astronomy.
He also developed a way to take photographs of spectra and was
the first to notice the red- and blue-shifting of the light of
stars caused by the Doppler Effect.
- Huygens, Christian (1629-1695) - Dutch scientist who
when studying Saturn with a telescope equipped with lenses of
his own design was the first to explain the the material surround
the planet were actually thin rings. He also discovered a moon
orbiting the planet.
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