View source for Joseph Ashbrook

{{short description|American astronomer (1918–1980)}}
'''Joseph Ashbrook''' (April 4, 1918 – August 4, 1980) was an American [[astronomer]].
==Biography==
Ashbrook was born in [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]].  He received a doctorate from [[Harvard University]] in 1947 and taught at [[Yale University]] from 1946 to 1950, and at Harvard from 1950 to 1953.  He started to work at ''[[Sky and Telescope]]'' in 1953, where he wrote the column "Astronomical Scrapbook" from 1954 to 1980, and remained on its staff until his death; he also edited the magazine from 1964 on.<ref name=a>"Ashbrook, Joseph", by Leif L. Robinson, pp. 65-66 in ''The Biographical Dictionary of Astronomers'', eds. Thomas Hockey et al., Springer: New York, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-387-31022-0}}, {{doi|10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7}}.</ref>
Ashbrook was one of the first to study [[Cepheid variable]]s as tools for establishing galactic distances.  He was a longtime member of the [[American Association of Variable Star Observers|AAVSO]].
He went through old archives of observations from centuries past to determine a highly precise value for the [[rotation period]] of [[Mars]] —to within a few thousandths of a second.
He co-discovered the periodic comet [[47P/Ashbrook-Jackson]] in 1948.<ref name=a />
==Honors==
* Member of the [[American Astronomical Society]] and [[International Astronomical Union]].
* Crater [[Ashbrook (crater)|Ashbrook]] on the [[Moon]] named after him.
* Minor planet [[2157 Ashbrook]] named after him.<ref name=a />
==References==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
=== Obituaries ===
* Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers '''9''' (1980) 43
* ''[[Sky and Telescope]]'' '''60''' (1980) 281
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[[Category:1918 births]]
[[Category:1980 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American astronomers]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Yale University faculty]]
[[Category:Harvard University faculty]]
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