BABCOCK, HORACE WELCOME

born Sept. 13, 1912, Pasadena, Calif., U.S. astronomer who with his father, Harold Delos Babcock, invented the solar magnetograph. Horace Babcock worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, before joining the staff of Mount Wilson and Palomar Mountain observatories in 1946; he served as director of the observatories from 1964 to 1978. His work included studies of stellar magnetism, the glow of the night sky, and the rotation of galaxies, as well as telescope design.