Science & invention / Business & brands
Robert R. McMath
1891–1962 · solar astronomer, engineer, businessman
Detroit engineer and businessman turned solar astronomer, co-founder of the McMath–Hulbert Observatory at Lake Angelus, whose name lives on in the McMath–Pierce solar telescope.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
aged 70- Birth name
- Robert Raynolds McMath
- Also known as
- Robert Raynolds McMath
- Detroit years
- 1891–1962
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
McMath was born in Detroit in 1891, the son of Francis C. McMath, who made a fortune building bridges. Trained as a bridge engineer, he went into business, but father and son were both keen amateur astronomers. With their friend Judge Henry S. Hulbert they built a private observatory at Lake Angelus in Oakland County, which they gave to the University of Michigan in the early 1930s; McMath directed it until 1961. In 1932 he extended the spectroheliograph so that it could make motion pictures of the Sun, and his films of prominences and flares showed solar features changing over seconds to days for the first time. He and his father shared the Franklin Institute's Wetherill Medal in 1933, and he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1958. He chaired the panel that led to Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, where the McMath–Pierce solar telescope, completed in 1962, bears his name. He died in Bloomfield Hills that year.
Highlights
- Co-founder and longtime director of the McMath–Hulbert Observatory, Lake Angelus
- Made the first motion pictures of solar prominences in motion (from 1932)
- Franklin Institute's John Price Wetherill Medal, with his father, 1933
- Chaired the NSF panel that led to Kitt Peak National Observatory
- The McMath–Pierce Solar Telescope at Kitt Peak is named for him
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1920s–1961
McMath–Hulbert Observatory
Closed · 1929–1981
The solar observatory at Lake Angelus, Oakland County, that McMath, his father and Judge Henry Hulbert founded privately and gave to the University of Michigan. The university ran it until 1981; it is now privately owned and used by amateur astronomers.