Harlan True Stetson

Harlan True Stetson
Born	(1885-06-28)28 June 1885
Died	14 October 1964(1964-10-14) (aged 79)
Nationality	American
Education	Brown University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University
Occupation(s)	astronomer and physicist
Known for	taught at Dartmouth and Harvard
Notable work	studied sunspots, the Earth's crust, and the propagation of radio waves

Harlan True Stetson FRAS (28 June 1885–14 October 1964) was an American astronomer and physicist.

He earned a B.S. from Brown University in 1912, a M.A. from Dartmouth College, then a Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1915. His thesis was titled, On an Apparatus and Method for Thermo-Electric Measurements for Photographic Photometry.

Stetson joined Dartmouth in 1918 to teach physics, then moved to Harvard where he taught astronomy until 1929. He then became the director of the Perkins Observatory in Delaware, Ohio. Stetson is an honorary member of Sigma Pi Sigma.

In 1936 he joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He directed the MIT Cosmic Terrestrial Research Laboratory from 1940 until 1950, and performed research into the relationship between the cosmos and the Earth. His studies included sunspots, the Earth's crust, and the propagation of radio waves.

The crater Stetson on the Moon is named in his honor.

Bibliography

• "A Manual of Laboratory Astronomy", 1923, Eastern Science Supply Company.
• "Man and the Stars", 1930
• "Earth, Radio and the Stars", 1934.
• "Sunspots and their effects", 1937.
• "Sunspots in Action", 1947, The Ronald Press Company, New York.

He is also the author of multiple articles on astronomy.