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Up for sale a VERY RARE! "American Astronomer" Olin Wilson Hand Written Letter.
ES-4434E
Olin Chaddock Wilson (January 13, 1909
– July 13, 1994) was an American astronomer best known for his work as a stellar spectroscopist. Born in San Francisco, CA as the son of
a lawyer, Wilson showed an interest in physics at an early age. He studied astronomy and physics
at the University of California,
Berkeley and wrote his first scientific paper in 1932 on the
subject of the speed of light. He
received his PhD from the California Institute of
Technology in 1934. Wilson was a staff member of Mount Wilson Observatory (not named after Olin Wilson)
for most of his research career where he studied stellar chromospheres. He was the first scientist to discover activity
cycles, similar to the solar 11-year sunspot cycle, in other stars. In collaboration
with Vainu Bappu, an Indian
astronomer, he also showed that there was a correlation between the width of
the Ca II lines in stellar spectra and the star's luminosity, the Wilson-Bappu Effect. He
gave the Henry Norris Russell
Lectureship in 1977 and won the Bruce Medal in 1984.
