Harold D. Babcock

{{short description|American astronomer}}{{Infobox scientist

| name = Harold Delos Babcock

| image = Delegates to the Fourth Conference International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research at Mount Wilson Observatory.jpg

| caption = Babcock at the Fourth Conference International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research at Mount Wilson Observatory, 1910

| birth_date = 24 January 1882

| birth_place = Edgerton, Wisconsin

| death_date = 8 April 1968

| death_place = Pasadena, California

| nationality = American

| fields = Solar spectroscopy

| workplaces = Mount Wilson Observatory

| alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley

| awards = Bruce Medal

}}

Harold Delos Babcock (January 24, 1882 – April 8, 1968) was an American astronomer and the father of Horace W. Babcock. He was of English and German ancestry.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/080/000167576/|title=Harold D. Babcock|website=www.nndb.com|access-date=2018-07-30}} He was born in Edgerton, Wisconsin, before completing high school in Los Angeles and was accepted to the University of California, Berkeley in 1901.{{cite book |title=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers |last=Hockey |first=Thomas |year=2009 |publisher=Springer Publishing |isbn=978-0-387-31022-0 |access-date=August 22, 2012 |url=http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/58092.html}} He worked at the Mount Wilson Observatory from 1907 until 1948. He specialized in solar spectroscopy and precisely mapped the distribution of magnetic fields over the Sun's surface, working alongside his son.{{Cite book|url=http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/babcock-harold.pdf|title=Harold Delos Babcock: 1882–1968|last=Bowen|first=Ira Sprague|publisher=National Academy of Sciences}} In 1953 he won the Bruce Medal.{{Cite web|url=http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/BruceMedalists/BabcockHD/index.html|title=The Bruce Medalists: Harold D. Babcock|last=Tenn|first=Joseph S.|website=www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu|date=2015-10-25|access-date=2018-07-30}} Babcock died of a heart attack in Pasadena, California at age 86.{{cite news|title=Astronomer Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28282319/harold_d_babcock_18821968/ |newspaper=The La Crosse Tribune |date=April 10, 1968 |page=17 |via = Newspapers.com |access-date = February 11, 2019 }} {{Open access}}

The crater Babcock on the Moon is named after him, as is asteroid 3167 Babcock (jointly named after him and his son).