1966/06/01 by Gerald E. Kron · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #History and Developments in Astronomy #Observatory #Autograph #History #Physics #Astronomy #Art history
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/128333
openalex publication_date 1966/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Some years ago, prior to the construction of the new laboratory building on Mount Hamilton, the Lick Observatory mail was distributed at noon in a small post office which, for years, had occupied a building once used for a transit instrument. There was always good conversation at mail time when N. U. Mayall was postmaster, C. D. Shane was director, and Joel Stebbins was research associate. One Friday in the early 1950's someone remarked how quickly the week had gone. With this as a cue, Stebbins, at the age of nearly 75, recited the old parable about the unrolling ball of string with such chilling effect that it made a lasting impression on me, and I thought of the incident at once upon hearing the sad news of his death on March 16, 1966, at the age of 87. In looking back over Stebbins' career, it is not hard to pick out that period which he himself must have felt to be his most productive and in which he must certainly have taken his greatest pride. Surely it was the decade of the thirties. In 1918 Stebbins had taken the directorship of the Washburn Observatory at the University of Wisconsin, and from this time until his retirement thirty years later he had a small but efficient staff under his direction. His early days at Washburn were spent in collaboration with C. M. Huff er. Stebbins and Huff er applied the photoelectric cell and electrometer with the 15-inch refractor to the discovery and observation of eclipsing binary stars. Many of the eclipsing binaries found by them have had lasting importance and are still being observed. The wonderful days of the '30s owed their quality to a combination of circumstances resulting, quite probably, from an increased maturity of Stebbins as an astronomer. He became a research associate of the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1931; there were only two others, Henry Norris Russell and Sir Arthur Eddington. Of all the honors Stebbins received during his long, productive, and colorful life, this one must have seemed the best as it led