Q3 Astronomer Biography: Edward Emerson Bernard

Edward Emerson Bernard was an American astronomer and astronomical photographer born on December 16, 1857, in Nashville, Tennessee.  Bernard was schooled by his mother until he was nine, and then was employed for 16 years for a photographer in Nashville where he was trained in photographic processing.  This training and his knowledge of  photographic lenses became useful in his career as an astronomer.
Bernard became interested in astronomy in 1876 after reading a book about astronomy and building his first telescope out of a broken spyglass.  He continued working as a photographer's assistant while studying astronomy at night.
On May 12, 1881, Barnard discovered his first comet, which however he did not announce. He found his second comet on September 17 of the same year, and another one on September 13, 1882.  After these discoveries, he was accepted to Vanderbilt University and graduated in 1887 with a bachelor's in science.  He was then appointed junior astronomer at the recently established Lick Observatory, which had a new 36-inch telescope.  This was the largest telescope in the world, at the time.  In 1892, Bernard discovered Jupiter's fifth moon, Amalthea.  He later discovered the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth moons of Jupiter as well.    Bernard also started to photograph the Milky Way Galaxy, capturing the intricate designs which he became famous for.
In 1895, Bernard accepted a position at the Yerkes Observatory, and started observing using the 40-inch photographic telescope in 1897.  Barnard next began the micrometric triangulation of some of the globular clusters, which he continued for nearly 25 years, hoping to detect motions of the individual stars.
In 1916 he discovered the proper motion of the 9.5 magnitude star cataloged as Munich 15040 or LFT 1385 located in the constellation Ophiuchus.  This star later became known as Bernard's Star.  In his lifetime, Edward Emerson Bernard collected 1400 negatives of comets, nearly 4000 plates of the Milky Way and other star fields, published more than 900 papers, had the honor having a Mars crater, moon crater, asteroid, and residence hall at Vanderbilt University after him.  he died on February 6, 1923 at the age of 66.