Edward E Barnard
Edward Emerson Barnard was a noted American astronomer
from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Barnard grew
up in a relatively un-wealthy family, and thus lacked much formal education. At
the young age of 9, Emerson began his career as an assistant photographer. From
here, his career as an astronomer commenced. His interest in photography led
Emerson to find a desire to study the heavens. In 1876, Emerson purchased his
first telescope, a 5 inch refractor telescope, with which he discovered his
first comet in 1881, and another later that year. In 1889, Emerson made one of
his first major astronomical observations; he observed the moon Lapetus pass
behind the rings of Saturn. Also, he had unwillingly and without taking notice,
discovered spokes in Saturn’s ring, which would then be proven to exist by
Voyager 1. In addition to these observations, Barnard was the first to discover
the 5th moon of Jupiter, Amalthea, the first discovery of a new
Jovian moon since Galileo in 1609. This was also the last discovery of a
satellite simply by naked-eye observation. Barnard’s career as a professional astronomer
had launched. In 1895 he became a professor of Astronomy at the University of
Chicago. While teaching there, he was able to use the 40 inch telescope at the
Yerkes Observatory, with which he took many photographs of the Milky Way,
discovering that dark, seemingly empty regions of the galaxy were actually
clouds of dust and gas that obscured distant background stars. Barnard
photographed many dark nebulae, and he catalogued them with numerical
designations, similar to Messier’s catalog. These became known as Barnard
objects, and are labeled Barnard 1 – Barnard 370. A few years after the
publication of his objects, Barnard died at the relatively young age of 65.
Many of Barnard’s photographs are still used to this day, and his catalog
allows for the simple classification of dark nebulae today. In addition to
this, Barnard discovered a faint star, now known as Barnard’s star. This star
is the second closest star to the Earth, following the Alpha Centauri system.
The discoveries and observations of Edward E Barnard helped to reshaped
astronomy and have allowed for the benefit of astronomers today.
