Carl Otto Lampland was born near Hayfield in Dodge County, Minnesota. He was born into a family of ten children. Both his father Ole Helliksen Lampland (1834–1914) and his mother Berit Gulliksdatter Skartum (1850–1943) were born in Norway.
Education
He was educated first at Valparaiso Normal school in Valparaiso, Indiana, where he earned a Bachelor of Surgery degree in 1899. He then studied at Indiana University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in astronomy in 1902, an Master of Arts
Career
He was involved with both of the Lowell Observatory solar system projects, observations of the planet Mars and the search for Planet X. in 1906, and an honorary LL.D in 1930. He first went to Lowell Observatory in 1902 when invited by Percival Lowell and Lampland was closely involved with Lowell in planetary observation. He designed cameras used for astronomy and also designed and maintained telescopes, including resilvering the mirror of the 40-inch (1,000 mm) telescope.
He also constructed thermocouples and used them to measure temperatures of planets.
Together with William Coblentz, he measured large differences between the day and night temperatures on Mars which implied a thin Martian atmosphere. He discovered the asteroid 1604 Tombaugh.
His date of birth is the starting point for the Mars Sol Date calendar. Lampland lunar crater on the Moon was named after him as is an Impact crater on Mars.
The asteroid 1767 Lampland is also named after him.
The Commanding Officer Lampland Collection in maintained at the Lowell Observatory Archives in Flagstaff. Slipher, Earl C. Croswell, Ken (1997) Planet Quest: The Epic Discovery of Alien Solar Systems (New York: The Free Press) Hughes, Stefan (2012) Catchers of the Light: The Forgotten Lives of the Men and Women Who First Photographed the Heavens (ArtDeCiel Publishing) Littman, Mark (1990) Planets Beyond: Discovering the Outer Solar System (New York: Wiley) Schilling, Govert (2009) The Hunt for Planet X: New Worlds and the Fate of Pluto (New York: Springer).
Achievements
Membership
Member Lowell Observatory Eclipse Expedition to Kansas, 1918, also solar eclipse expedition to Ensenada, Mexico, 1923. Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Member American Astronomical Society (council), International Astronomical Union (commission on planets and nebulae), Astronomical Society Pacific, Societe Astronomique de France, Astronomische Gesellschaft, American Physical Society, Mathematics Association America, American Philosophical Society, American Mathematics Society, Society for Research on Meteorites, Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art (vice-president and trustee), Sigma Xi, Phi Beta Kappa.
Member Sociedad Astronomico de Mexico.
Medalist Royal Photographic Society of Grt. Britain, 1907, for photographs of planet Mars.