Astronomy: Sort of a Family Business

One of the most imprtant astronomers of the early 20th Century was Jacobus Kapteyn of the Netherlands, where he taught at the University of Groningen. He came from a distinguished line of educators and scientists, his predecessors in a direct line including what may have been the most brilliant mathematician of all time, Euler. Euler's genius was recognized whan he was just ten years old. His teacher punished his class by ordering them to add up all the numbers from one to a hundred. Euler handed him the answer in less than two minutes. See if you can figure out the short cut this ten year old invented. Another genius in the academic list leading to Kapteyn was Leibnitz, who independently invented calculus at the same time Newton was working on it. And, as a culmination of genius, Johannes Kepler. Kepler also introduced the practice of some scientists writing what we now call science fiction. He had a novel about a visit to the Moon, using the story to teach what astronomers knew of it in his day. Getting back to Kapteyn, he is so highly regarded by astronomers that a lunar crater is named for him, as well as an asteroid (818 Kapteynia). Kapteyn discovered what was then the fastest moving star in our neighborhood (it still ranks as number 2), so it is known as Kepteyn's star. As a teacher Kapteyn trained an entire generation of prominent astronomers, nine of whom have been honored by having asteroids named for them. And Kapteyn's daughter married a Danish astronomer, Ejnar Hertzsprung, whose work in collaboration with the American Henry Norris Russell led to understanding the different types of stars and their relationships. Among Kapteyn's students was Jan Schilt, who left the Netherlands in 1933 to become Chair of Columbia University's Astronomy Department. He was teaching there in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. He got something of a reputation as a wit by commenting in the first class after the launch "Well, gentlemen, it is not every day we have something new in the sky to talk about." Schilt then spent the entire class proving the Soviets had deliberately launch Sputnik into an orbit where it would not be visible from the USA for six weeks. I was a student of Schilt, and in the class the day he made that remark. I was later to have four years working on the Apollo Project, followed by 32 years of teaching astronomy myself. Keeping up the tradition, I and two of my former students have each been honored asteroid names (4897 Tomhamilton), 14210 Espenak, and 17601 Sheldonschafer). Fred Espenak worked for years at NASA as their resident expert on eclipses, and has several books on eclipses. So Kapteyn, although perhaps not well known to the public today, is the font from which large amounts of astronomical discoveries can be traced, either by him or by his academic descendents in several countries.