Alvan Clark

Alvan Clark (March 8, 1804–August 19, 1887), born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, the descendant of a Cape Cod whaling family of English ancestry, was an American astronomer and telescope maker. He was a portrait painter and engraver, but at the age of 40 become involved in telescope making. Using glass blanks made by Chance Brothers of Birmingham and Feil-Mantois of Paris, his firm Alvan Clark & Sons ground lenses for refracting telescopes, including the largest in the world at the time: the at Dearborn Observatory at the Old University of Chicago (the lens was originally intended for Ole Miss), the at the United States Naval Observatory, the at Pulkovo Observatory (destroyed in the Siege of Leningrad; only the lens survives), the telescope at Lick Observatory (still third-largest) and later the at Yerkes Observatory, which remains the largest successful refracting telescope in the world. One of Clark's sons, Alvan Graham Clark, discovered the dim companion of Sirius. His other son was George Bassett Clark; both sons were partners in the firm.

Craters on the Moon and on Mars are named in his honor.

See also

• List of astronomical instrument makers
• List of largest optical refracting telescopes

References

• Alvan Clark, Astronomy, Biographies. In AllRefer.com .
• Deborah Jean Warner and Robert B. Ariail Alvan Clark & Sons, Artists in Optics. ISBN 0-943396-46-8.