Carl Otto Lampland

+ Minor planets discovered: 1

He was educated first at Valparaiso Normal School in Valparaiso, Indiana, where he earned a B.S. degree in 1899. He then studied at Indiana University Bloomington, where he received a B.A. degree in astronomy in 1902, an M.A. in 1906, and an honorary LL.D in 1930.

He first went to Lowell Observatory in 1902 when invited by Percival Lowell Together with William Coblentz, he measured large differences between the day and night temperatures on Mars which implied a thin Martian atmosphere. He discovered the asteroid 1604 Tombaugh. In 1907 Lampland and Lowell won a Royal Photographic Society exhibition medal for their photographs of Mars. Lampland was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1931. The asteroid 1767 Lampland was named in his memory. The Martian crater Lampland was also named after him. The C.O. Lampland Collection is maintained at the Lowell Observatory Archives in Flagstaff.

Related reading Slipher, Earl C. (1962) The Photographic Story of Mars (Cambridge Massachusetts: Sky Publishing) Croswell, Ken (1997) Planet Quest: The Epic Discovery of Alien Solar Systems (New York: The Free Press) Hughes, Stefan (2012) Catchers of the Light: The Forgotten Lives of the Men and Women Who First Photographed the Heavens (ArtDeCiel Publishing) . Littman, Mark (1990) Planets Beyond: Discovering the Outer Solar System (New York: Wiley) Schilling, Govert (2009) The Hunt for Planet X: New Worlds and the Fate of Pluto (New York: Springer)