The Biographical Dictionary of America/Barnard, Edward Emerson

​BARNARD, Edward Emerson, astronomer, was born in Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 16, 1857. At the age of eight, the fatherless lad began to earn his living in a photograph studio. He was fond of study, and a book on practical astronomy roused his interest in that subject. From the maps and charts of this book he learned some of the wonders of the sky. As a telescope was his first want, he mounted the object lens of a common spy-glass in a paper tube made by himself, and with this crude but ingenious instrument he secured an observation of the crescent form of Venus, the disks of the other planets and phenomena so strange that he longed for better views. In 1877 by rigid economy he was enabled to purchase a five-inch telescope. With this instrument, the young astronomer began to study Jupiter and to search for comets. In 1886 he discovered Comet IV., and by 1887 had become world renowned as the leading discoverer of comets. In 1883 he left his occupation as photographer to accept a fellowship in astronomy at Vanderbilt university. He took a course in English, French, German, mathematics and physics at the university, and was graduated from the school of mathematics in 1887. The faculty placed him in charge of the observatory connected with the university when he began his course and he became a diligent observer. H.H. Warner of the Warner observatory in Rochester, N.Y., had offered a prize of two hundred dollars for the discovery of each new comet, and Barnard received three of these prizes. The money thus obtained enabled him to buy books and apparatus needful in his work. In 1888 Professor Barnard accepted a position in the Lick observatory. His observations at the Vanderbilt university had covered a wide range. He had studied asteroids, nebulae, double stars, planets, the moon, sunspots, meteors, occulations and eclipses. With increased zeal he continued this wide field of study at Lick university. In 1890 he observed a double transit of the first satellites across the disk of Jupiter, and in July, 1892, he began to use the large telescope on that planet and soon astonished the astronomical world by discovering a new moon revolving about Jupiter. This moon appeared as a faint speck of light and had escaped the observation of astronomers for three hundred years. The discovery made the superiority of the Lick telescope manifest. The making of photographs of the milky way interested Mr. Barnard more than any other work that he undertook. His plates revealed facts that materially changed astronomical computations. Older astronomers estimated the number of suns in the milky way at about 20,000,000. Mr. Barnard asserted that he could photograph 200,000,000 in a five-minute dry-plate exposure, and that his finished photographs revealed 500,000,000 suns. Photography greatly assisted Professor Barnard in the study and discerning of comets, besides being fruitful in unlooked-for directions. He was made a fellow of the Royal astronomical society of London in 1887. His observations are recorded in the standard astronomical journals of the world. He was professor of astronomy in the University of Chicago and astronomer of Yerkes observatory from 1895. In 1893 the French academy of science awarded to him the Lalande gold medal for his discovery of the 5th moon of Jupiter, and in the same year he received the Donahoe medal for his photographic discovery of a comet in 1892. The French academy of science gave him its highest honor in the bestowal of the Argo medal for his discovery of Jupiter's fifth satellite in 1894. This medal has only been given to two others, Leverrier in 1846 and Prof. Asaph Hall in 1877. He also received the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical society in 1897, for the same distinguishing work.