Background
Hussey, William Joseph was born on August 10, 1862 in at Mendon, Ohio, United States. Son of John Milton and Mary Catherine (Severns) Hussey.
Hussey, William Joseph was born on August 10, 1862 in at Mendon, Ohio, United States. Son of John Milton and Mary Catherine (Severns) Hussey.
Bachelor of Science, University of Michigan, 1889. Doctor of Science, Brown University, 1912.
He is most famous for the discovery and study of close binary stars. In the period from 1898 to 1899, he reobserved all binaries discovered by Otto Struve, with at least three observations of each. His amazing efficiency is demonstrated by these numbers: he made 1,920 observations in one year, with a record of 80 in one night.
At the conclusion of his double star work in 1905, he had discovered and measured 1,327 close binaries.
He was born at Mendon, Ohio, August 10, 1862, son of John Milton and Mary Catherine (Severns) Hussey. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the University of Michigan in 1889, he served as assistant in the Nautical Almanac Office of Washington.
He soon returned to Ann Arbor as instructor in mathematics, and became instructor in astronomy in 1891. In 1892, he joined the faculty of Stanford University as professor of astronomy.
From 1896 to 1905 he was Astronomer at the Lick Observatory, returning to the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1905 to become professor of astronomy and director of the Detroit Observatory.
In 1897, he was elected president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The Lamont–Hussey Observatory in Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa was named after him. A crater on Mars was named in his honor.
MNRAS 87 (1927) 260
Observer 49 (1926) 347
PASP 39 (1927) 35.
Member Sociedad Astronomica de Mexico.
Married Ethel Fountain, June 27, 1895. Married second, Mary McNeal Reed, September 1, 1917. Children: Roland Fountain, Allis Fountain.
