Frank Schlesinger

Frank Schlesinger (May 11, 1871 – July 10, 1943) was an American astronomer, president from 1919 to 1922 of the American Astronomical Society, director from 1920 to 1941 of the Yale University Observatory, and president from 1932 to 1935 of the International Astronomical Union. Among his honors, Schlesinger was elected in 1912 to the American Philosophical Society, in 1916 to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and in 1921 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Quotes

There is a proverb to the effect that to him that is well shod the whole earth is covered with leather. And so the mathematician may walk where he pleases. What particular path he chooses is not a matter of great importance, but it is important that he be abroad and doing, and that he do not sit at home admiring his shoes.
- (22 January 1915) "The Object of Astronomical and Mathematical Research" 41 (1047): 109–117. DOI:10.1126/science.41.1047.109.quote from p. 117

Recently, Thomas J. Watson, who is president of the International Business Machine Company, has set up at Columbia University, under the direction of Dr. Eckert, an astronomical computing bureau to which has been generously contributed the free use of a complete battery of these machines. This has enabled the bureau to undertake several large pieces of work: the numerical verification of Brown’s lunar theory; the computation of standard places on Yale photographic plates, starting with the right ascensions and declinations of several hundred thousand stars; planetary perturbations, and so on.
- (28 March 1941) "Book Review: Scientific Computation: Punched Card Methods in Scientific Computation by W. J. Eckert". Science 93 (2413): 307–308. DOI:10.1126/science.93.2413.307. p. 307 p. 308

... until we come to the Greeks in the sixth century B. C., astronomical inquiry seem to have been concerned more with the question "How?" than with "Why?" The restless and speculative character of the Greek mind showed itself very early in its astronomy, and it is the Greeks who must be accounted the founders of the subject as a true science. To cite only one example: those who preceded the Greeks, for all their success with the prediction of eclipses, do not seem to have been aware that it is the moon that causes a solar eclipse. This idea was advanced by Thales of Miletus (about 640 to 546 B. C.), one of the founders of the Ionian School. From this he was naturally led to conclude that the moon is a dark body and that we see it only because the sun is shining upon it; and from this again he went to the true explanation of the phases of the moon.
- "Chapter IV. Astronomy". "'The Development of the Sciences''. 6 chapters from 6 different lectures delivered in 1920 at Yale University by Ernest William Brown, Henry Andrews Bumstead, John Johnston, Frank Schlesinger, Herbert Ernest Gregory, & Lorande Loss Woodruff. Yale University Press. 1923. pp. 129–167. (327 pages; edited by Lorande Loss Woodruff; quote from p. 132)

Long before the time of Hipparchus the Chaldeans had fixed the length of the year at 365¼ days, which is only eleven minutes too long. All the nations that came into contact with the Chaldeans borrowed much of their astronomy, and among other things adopted this value of the year. Hipparchus was the first to learn that it needed a slight correction, which he placed at six minutes, leaving his year still five minutes too long.
- p. 139

For two centuries after the discovery of sunspots, no one thought it worth while to observer these evanescent objects systematically, any more than today we should deem it profitable to record in detail the number and size of the clouds in our own atmosphere. But in 1826 Heinrich Schwabe of Dessau began to observe them on every clear day with a small telescope, and continued to do so for nearly half a century. He found that in some years hardly a spot was to be seen, while in others the sun's face always showed a number of them. This was the discovery of the sunspot cycle, or period of eleven years.
- p. 164

Encyclopedic article on Frank Schlesinger on Wikipedia
Joseph S. Tenn, (1994) . "Frank Schlesinger: The twenty-fourth Bruce medalist". Mercury 23 (3): 26–27.
Dirk Brouwer, Biographical Memoir of Frank Schlesinger 1871–1943. Biographical Memoirs of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. XXIV. 1947. pp. 105–144.