astronomy

Heber Doust Curtis

Heber Doust Curtis is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Heber Doust Curtis rather than just read about it. In short: Heber Doust Curtis (June 27, 1872 – January 9, 1942) was an American astronomer. He participated in 11 expeditions for the study of solar eclipses, and, as an advocate and theorist that additional galaxies existed outside of the Milky Way, was involved in the 1920 Shapley–Curtis Debate concerning the size and galactic structure of the universe.

Key takeaways

Heber Doust Curtis belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Heber Doust Curtis to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Heber Doust Curtis from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Heber Doust Curtis (June 27, 1872 – January 9, 1942) was an American astronomer. He participated in 11 expeditions for the study of solar eclipses, and, as an advocate and theorist that additional galaxies existed outside of the Milky Way, was involved in the 1920 Shapley–Curtis Debate concerning the size and galactic structure of the universe.

Biography Curtis was born on June 27, 1872, the elder son of Orson Blair Curtis and Sarah Eliza Doust. He studied at the University of Michigan and at the University of Virginia, earning a degree in astronomy from the latter. From 1902 to 1920 Curtis worked at Lick Observatory, continuing the survey of nebulae initiated by Keeler. He headed up the Lick southern station in Chile from 1905 until 1909, when he returned to take charge of the Crossley telescope. In 1912 he was elected president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. In 1918 he observed Messier 87 and was the first to notice the astrophysical jet which he described as a "curious straight ray ... apparently connected with the nucleus by a thin line of matter." In 1920 he was appointed director of the Allegheny Observatory. In the same year he participated in the Great Debate with Harlow Shapley (also called the Shapley–Curtis Debate) on the nature of nebulae and galaxies, and the size of the universe. Curtis advocated the now-accepted view that other galaxies apart from the Milky Way existed. Curtis also invented a type of film plate comparator in about 1925, allowing 2 plates, each 8×10 in, to be compared using a set of prisms and placing the plates on stacked and aligned stages rather than next to one another as was the norm, this allowed the body of the device to measure just 60×51 cm. This device is packed in crates and resided at UCO Lick Observatory as of Aug 2011. His article describing the device appears in the Publications of the Allegheny Observatory, vol. VIII, no. 2. In 1930 Curtis was appointed director of the University of Michigan observatories, but the shortage of funds following the Great Depression prevented the construction of a large reflector he had designed for the university at Ann Arbor. He contributed to develop the McMath–Hulbert private observatory at Lake Angelus. Curtis was an opponent of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. He died on January 9, 1942.

Legacy The Heber Doust Curtis Memorial Telescope at the Portage Lake Observatory was dedicated in 1950 in Curtis's memory. It no longer operates, but remains as a memorial to Curtis. A small lunar crater east of the larger crater Picard in Mare Crisium received the official name Curtis.

References

External links The Great Debate National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir Portraits of Heber D. Curtis from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collection Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Heber Doust Curtis

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Heber Doust Curtis claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Heber Doust Curtis before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Heber Doust Curtis ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Heber Doust Curtis

In research: Heber Doust Curtis appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Heber Doust Curtis in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Heber Doust Curtis is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1872 births, 1942 deaths, 20th-century American astronomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Heber Doust Curtis outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Heber Doust Curtis in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Heber Doust Curtis means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Heber Doust Curtis out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Heber Doust Curtis in simple terms?

Why does Heber Doust Curtis matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Heber Doust Curtis?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Heber Doust Curtis.