William Henry Pickering (Pickering William Henry)

(1858-1938)
Born February 15, 1858 in Boston. In 1879 he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1887 he became a professor of astronomy at Harvard University, worked at the Harvard Observatory, where the director was his brother, the astronomer E. Pickering. In 1924 he resigned, continued monitoring in Jamaica.
Pickering dealt with the visual and photographic studies of planets and other solar system bodies. He was particularly attracted Mars. Pickering has proved that the dark areas on this planet are not the seas. Conducted long-term observation of the lunar surface, confirmed the existence of changes in its landscape, marked by other astronomers. The observations presented in the Moon (The Moon, 1903). He opened the ninth satellite of Saturn, called Feboy, and found that it moves in the opposite direction with respect to other satellites,. He suggested the method of rotating mirrors to measure the rate of meteors. As P. Lovell, was a supporter of the hypothesis of existence of trans-Neptunian planets, in 1907 first published estimates of its position. Once in 1930 at the Lowell Observatory, Pluto was discovered, his image was discovered on photographs obtained in 1919, approximately where indicated Pickering (then the planet not seen due to its low luminosity).

Pickering was involved in the organization of monitoring stations, which were created at the Harvard Observatory in the world - in Southern California, Peru, South Africa, Jamaica. Supervised installation of the telescope at Lowell Observatory near Flagstaff (pc. Arizona).

Pickering died in Mandeville (Jamaica) 17 January 1938.