Bailey,Shapley,and Variable Stars in Globular Clusters

Shapley Harlow , Through rugged ways to the stars (New York, 1969), 90.

van der Kamp Peter , “The Galactocentric Revolution: A reminiscent narrative”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, lxxvii (1965), 325–35.

See, for example, the discussion in Smith Robert W. , The expanding universe (Cambridge, 1982), 55–96.

Bailey's life and career are describéd in Jones Bessie Z. and Boyd Lyle G. , The Harvard College Observatory (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), in the memoir by Cannon Annie J. , “Biographical memoir of Solon Irving Bailey”, National Academy of Sciences biographical memoirs, XV (1932), 193–203, and in the obituary notice by King Edward S. , Popular astronomy, xxxix (1931), 456–60.

The story of the discovery of the first globular cluster variables is recounted by Bailey S. I. , Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, xxxviii (1902), 1–5, and summarized in Smith H. A. , RR Lyrae stars (Cambridge, 1995), 1–5.

Bailey S. I. to Pickering E. C. , 30 July 1895 (HUA); quoted in Jones and Boyd , op. cit. (ref. 4), 322.

Boyd and Jones , op. cit. (ref. 4), 353.

Bailey S. I. , “Variable stars in clusters”, Publications of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, i (1898), 49.

Bailey S. I. , “A discussion of variable stars in the cluster Omega Centauri”, Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, xxxviii (1902), 1–252, p. 4.

Herschel W. , “On the method of observing changes that happen to the fixed stars…. To which is added, a catalogue of comparative brightness”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, lxxxvi (1796), 166–226; Hearnshaw J. B. , The measurement of starlight (Cambridge, 1996), 346.

C. Pulfrich's paper on the adaptation of the stereocomparator for blink photometry would not be published until 1902. See Pulfrich C. , Zeitschrift für Instrumentenkunde, xxi (1902), 65–81, and Hoffleit D. , “A history of variable star astronomy to 1900 and slightly beyond”, Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, xv (1986), 77–106.

Hogg Sawyer Helen , Third catalogue of globular cluster variables (Publications of the David Dunlap Observatory, iii, no. 6 (1973)).

Pickering E. C. , “Variable stars in clusters”, Harvard College Observatory circulars, no. 33 (1898), 1–4.

Bailey S. I. to Pickering E. C. , 30 March 1897 (HUA); quoted in Jones and Boyd , op. cit. (ref. 4), 354.

Bailey S. I. , “Periods of the variable stars in the cluster Messier 5”, Publications of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, i (1899), 96; also idem, “The periods of the variable stars in the cluster Messier 5”, Astrophysical journal, x (1899), 255–60.

Bailey S. I. . “A discussion of variable stars in the cluster Omega Centauri”, Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, xxxviii/1 (1902), 1–252; idem, “Stars in the cluster Messier 3”, ibid., lxxviii/1 (1913), 1–98; idem, “Variable stars in the cluster Messier 5”, ibid., lxxvii/2 (1917), 103–93; idem, “Variable stars in the cluster Messier 15”, ibid., lxxviii/3 (1919), 199–250.

Pickering Edward C. , “Dimensions of the fixed stars, with especial reference to binaries and variables of the Algol type”. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, xvi (1881), 1–37.

Lankford John , American astronomy (Chicago, 1997), chap. 7.

Payne-Gaposchkin C. , Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An autobiography and other recollections, ed. by Haramundanis K. (Cambridge, 1984), 151–2.

Lankford , op. cit. (ref. 18), 290.

Although beyond the scope of this paper, a parallel discussion of the careers of Bailey and Henrietta Leavitt would provide an interesting commentary on the role of gender at the Harvard College Observatory c. 1900.

Pickering , op. cit. (ref. 17), 17.

Bailey presumably alludes here to the Cepheid variables.

Bailey , op. cit. (ref. 9), 233–4.

See, for example, the excellent discussion by Martin W. C. , “Photographic photometry of variable stars in the globular cluster Omega Centauri”, Annalen can de Sterrewacht te Leiden, xvii/2 (1938), 1–166.

The Cepheid period-luminosity relation that could have been drawn from Bailey's ω Centauri data is shown in Smith Horace A. , “Solon Bailey and the period-luminosity relation”. Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, xxvi (1997), 62–67, as is a similar plot based upon more recent observations of the same stars.

Bailey S. I. , “Note on the relation between the visual and photographic light-curves of variable stars of short period”, Publications of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, i (1910), 97–98.

The collaboration between Keeler and Bailey is briefly discussed by Donald E. Osterbrock in James E. Keeler: Pioneer American astrophysicist (Cambridge, 1984), 319–20. Cf. Bailey S. I. to Keeler J. , 20 June 1900 (MLS).

Bailey S. I. , “The rate of increase in brightness of three variable stars in the cluster Messier 3”, Publications of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, i (1910), 100–2.

Osterbrock , op. cit. (ref. 28), 319.

Ashbrook Joseph , “Five lives of a 60-inch reflector”, Astronomical scrapbook (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), 168–76.

Pickering E. C. to Lowell A. L. , 17 March 1910, quoted in Boyd and Jones , op. cit. (ref. 4), 379.

Hale's life is described in Wright Helen , Explorer of the universe (New York, 1994).

Hale G. E. to Pickering E. C. , 28 February 1912 (HUA).

The most complete publication of Shapley's work on eclipsing binaries appeared in Contributions of the Princeton Observatory, no. 3 (1913).

Russell H. N. to Pickering E. C. , 7 August 1912, quoted in Jones and Boyd , op. cit. (ref. 4), 483.

Shapley , op. cit. (ref. 1), 41. On p. 90 Shapley reiterates the importance of Bailey's suggestion that Shapley investigate globular clusters, though Shapley also comments that he didn't remember any big contributions that Bailey made to stellar astronomy.

Shapley H. to Bailey S. I. , 30 January 1917 (HUA).

Shapley Harlow , “New variables in the center of Messier 3”, Astrophysical journal, xl (1914), 443–7.

See the discussion in Smith Robert W. , op. cit. (ref. 3), 71–73.

Shapley H. , “On the nature and cause of Cepheid variation”, Astrophysical journal, xl (1914), 448–65.

Shapley , op. cit. (ref. 1), 39.

Kiess C. C. , “The cluster variable RR Lyrae”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, xxv (1913), 121–3.

Shapley's derivation of the period-luminosity relation is discussed by Smith Robert W. , op. cit. (ref. 3), chap. 2.

Shapley Harlow , “Studies based on the colors and magnitudes in stellar clusters, sixth paper: On the determination of the distances of globular clusters”, Astrophysical journal, xlviii (1918), 81–116.

Shapley is referring to Bailey's paper “Cluster variables with double maxima”, Harvard Observatory circulars, no. 193 (1916).

Shapley H. to Bailey S. I. , 30 January 1917 (HUA).

Bailey S. I. to Shapley H. , 15 February 1917; Bailey S. I. to Shapley H. , 17 April 1917 (HUA).

Pickering E. C. to Hale G. E. , 18 February 1918; Adams W. S. to Pickering E. C. , 25 February 1918; Pickering E. C. to Adams W. S. , 5 March 1918 (HUA).

Shapley H. , “Studies based on the colors and magnitudes in stellar clusters, second paper: Thirteen hundred stars in the Hercules cluster (Messier 13)”, Contributions of the Mount Wilson Observatory, no. 115 (1915).

Shapley , op. cit. (ref. 1), 55–56.

Pickering E. C. , “Periods of 25 variable stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud”, Harvard College Observatory circulars, no. 173 (1912).

Shapley H. to Pickering E. C. , 20 July 1918, quoted in Jones and Boyd , op. cit. (ref. 4), 369.

Bailey S. I. , “Variable stars in the cluster Messier 15”, Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, lxxviii/3 (1919), 248–50.

The difference in atittude among Pickering, Russell, and Hale is discussed by DeVorkin D. H. , “A fox raiding the hedgehogs: How Henry Norris Russell got to Mt. Wilson”, in The Earth, the Heavens, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, ed. by Good Gregory (Washington, 1994), 103–11.

See Smith H. A. , op. cit. (ref. 5), 91–102, and references therein; Silbermann N. A. and Smith H. A. , “Period changes of variable stars in the globular cluster M15”, Astronomical journal, cix (1995), 1119–30.