Keith Pierce

Austin Keith Pierce (October 2, 1918 – March 11, 2005) was an American solar astronomer. Pierce played a key role in the development of the McMath–Pierce solar telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.

Biography Austin Keith Pierce was born October 2, 1918, in Tacoma, Washington. His father, Tracy Pierce, was a mathematician at the University of Nebraska and an amateur astronomer.

From 1936 to 1938, he studied at the University of Nebraska, before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley where in 1940 he obtained a BSc in astronomy. Pierce gained observing experience at the Mount Wilson and McMath–Hulbert solar observatories and toured European solar observatories to inform the design of the new telescope. As a part of a broader expedition, researchers from Kitt Peak National Observatory and the High Altitude Observatory conducted airborne and ground-based studies over the Pacific Ocean during the solar eclipse of 30 May 1965. On the expedition, his team sought improved measurements of the pressure, density, and temperature of the solar corona.