Raymond Smith Dugan

Minor planets discovered: 16 [1]
497 Iva 4 November 1902 list
503 Evelyn 19 January 1903 list
506 Marion 17 February 1903 list
507 Laodica 19 February 1903 list
508 Princetonia 20 April 1903 list
510 Mabella 20 May 1903 list
511 Davida 30 May 1903 list
516 Amherstia 20 September 1903 list
517 Edith 22 September 1903 list
518 Halawe 20 October 1903 list
519 Sylvania 20 October 1903 list
521 Brixia 10 January 1904 list
523 Ada 27 January 1904 list
533 Sara 19 April 1904 list
534 Nassovia 19 April 1904 list
535 Montague 7 May 1904 list

Raymond Smith Dugan (May 30, 1878 – August 31, 1940) was an American astronomer and discoverer of minor planets.[2] His parents were Jeremiah Welby and Mary Evelyn Smith and he was born in Montague in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.[3]

His undergraduate and Masters was from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1899 and 1902. Dugan then received his Ph.D. dissertation in 1905 at the Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl (Königstuhl Observatory, near Heidelberg) at the University of Heidelberg.[4]

At the time, the observatory at Heidelberg was a center of asteroid discovery under Max Wolf. During Dugan's stay there, he discovered 16 asteroids between 1902 and 1904, notably including 511 Davida.[1][5]

He was employed by Princeton University as an instructor (1905–1908), assistant professor (1908–1920), and professor (1920—). He married Annette Rumford in 1909.

Dugan co-wrote an influential two-volume textbook in 1927 with Henry Norris Russell and John Quincy Stewart called Astronomy: A Revision of Young’s Manual of Astronomy (Ginn & Co., Boston, 1926–27, 1938, 1945). This became the standard astronomy textbook for about two decades.[citation needed] There are two volumes: the first is The Solar System and the second is Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy.

Dugan was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1931.[6] The lunar crater Dugan and the main-belt asteroid 2772 Dugan are named in his honour.[2]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference MPC-Discoverers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference springer-Dugan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Encyclopedia-of-Astronomers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Landessternwarte Dissertation List Archived 2004-06-23 at the Wayback Machine at www.lsw.uni-heidelberg.de
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference springer-Davida was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-07-06.