Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

145 results found

European Southern Observatory

(Encyclopedia)European Southern Observatory (ESO), an intergovernmental organization for astronomical research with headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany. The ESO began in 1962 as a consortium among Belgiu...

Kitt Peak National Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Kitt Peak National Observatory, astronomical observatory located southwest of Tucson, Ariz.; it was founded in 1958 under contract with the National Science Foundation and is administered by the Assoc...

Lick Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Lick Observatory, astronomical observatory located on Mt. Hamilton, Calif., near San Jose; the first mountaintop observatory in the world, it was founded through gifts made by James Lick in 1874–75 ...

Siding Spring Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Siding Spring Observatory, astronomical observatory located on Siding Spring Mountain, near Coonabarabran, at an altitude of nearly 4,000 ft (1,220 m) in the Warrumbungle Mts. of New South Wales, Aust...

coronagraph

(Encyclopedia)coronagraph kərōˈnəgrăfˌ [key], device invented by the French astronomer B. Lyot (1931) for the purpose of observing the corona of the sun and solar prominences occurring in the chromosphere. Be...

Mount Stromlo Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Mount Stromlo Observatory, astronomical observatory located on Mt. Stromlo, near Canberra, Australia. Established in 1924 (14 years after the first telescope was erected there), it has been operated b...

Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, astronomical observatory located 35 mi (56 km) S of Tucson, Ariz., at an altitude of 8,500 ft (2,590 m). It is operated jointly by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Obse...

infrared astronomy

(Encyclopedia)infrared astronomy, study of celestial objects by means of the infrared radiation they emit, in the wavelength range from about 1 micrometer to about 1 millimeter. All objects, from trees and building...

Giacconi, Riccardo

(Encyclopedia)Giacconi, Riccardo, 1931–2018, Italian-American astrophysicist, b. Milan, Italy, Ph.D. Univ. of Milan 1954. He was a researcher at American Science and Engineering Corporation (1959–73), professor...

Clark, Alvan

(Encyclopedia)Clark, Alvan, 1804–87, American astronomer and maker of astronomical lenses, b. Ashfield, Mass. In 1846 the firm of Alvan Clark & Sons was established at Cambridgeport, Mass.; it became famous a...