Bart Jan Bok (Hoorn, April 28, 1906 – Tucson, August 5, 1983) was a Dutch-American astronomer. Hoorn is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. ... April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining. ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Tucson redirects here, for the vehicle by Hyundai Motor Company, see Hyundai Tucson Tucson (pronounced ) is a city and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States, located 135 miles (217 km) southeast of Phoenix. ... August 5 is the 217th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (218th in leap years), with 148 days remaining. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... An astronomer or astrophysicist is a scientist whose area of research is astronomy or astrophysics. ...

He was born in the Netherlands, and educated at the Leiden and Groningen Universities. In 1929 he married fellow astronomer Dr. Priscilla Fairfield Bok, and for the remainder of their lives the two collaborated closely on their astronomical work. Leiden University in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. ... Front of the main building of the University of Groningen The University of Groningen (Dutch: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen or RuG) is a university in Groningen, Netherlands. ... // History Because of the above definition, the oldest universities in the world were all European, as the awarding of academic degrees was not a custom of older institutions of learning in Asia and Africa. ... -1... An astronomer or astrophysicist is a scientist whose area of research is astronomy or astrophysics. ...

From 1929 until 1957 he worked at Harvard University. He then worked as director of Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia for nine years, before returning to the United States as director of Steward Observatory. He became a US citizen in 1938.-1... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... The old administration building with the dome of the Farnham telescope The dome of the 50-inch Great Melbourne telescope Mount Stromlo Observatory (MSO) located just outside of Canberra, Australia, is part of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University (ANU). ... Steward Observatorys main office is located on the University of Arizona campus. ... -1...

In 1975 Bok coauthored the statement Objections to Astrology, which was endorsed by 192 professional astronomers, including nineteen winners of the Nobel Prize. The statement was published in the Humanist. This led to the formation of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, of which he was a founding Fellow. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Humanism is a system of thought that defines a socio-political doctrine (-ism) whose bounds exceed those of locally developed cultures, to include all of humanity and all issues common to human beings. ... The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, or CSICOP, is an organization formed to encourage open minded, critical investigation of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims from a responsible, scientific point of view. ...

Bok died of a heart attack in his home in Tucson, Arizona. A myocardial infarction occurs when an atherosclerotic plaque slowly builds up in the inner lining of a coronary artery and then suddenly ruptures, totally occluding the artery and preventing blood flow downstream. ...

Honors

Awards

• Bruce Medal (1977)
• Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1982)
• Klumpke-Roberts Award (1982)

Named after him The Catherine Wolfe Bruce gold medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to astronomy. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... The Henry Norris Russell Lectureship is awarded each year by the American Astronomical Society in recognition of a lifetime of excellence in astronomical research. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Klumpke-Roberts Award was established from a bequest astronomer Dorothea Klumpke-Roberts and recognizes outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy. ...

• Bok crater on the Moon (with his wife)
• Asteroid 1983 Bok (with his wife)
• Bok globules

Bok crater on Mars is named for a geographical location in Papua New Guinea and not for him. whats up bubilicious Bok is a lunar crater that is located on the far side of the Moon. ... Crust composition Oxygen 43% Silicon 21% Aluminium 10% Calcium 9% Iron 9% Magnesium 5% Titanium 2% Nickel 0. ... An asteroid is a small, solid object in our Solar System, orbiting the Sun. ... 1983 Bok is an asteroid discovered June 9, 1975 by Elizabeth Roemer. ... An image of Bok globules in the H II region IC 2944, taken with the WFPC2 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope A Bok globule is a dark cloud of dense dust and gas in which star formation is taking place. ... Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the solar system, named after the Roman god of war (the counterpart of the Greek Ares), on account of its blood red color as viewed in the night sky. ...

Bibliography

• Bart Jan Bok and Priscilla Fairfield Bok, The Milky Way, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0674575032.

External links

• Bruce Medal page
• National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs V.64 (1994)

Obituaries

• JRASC 78 (1984) 3
• JRASC 78 (1984) 8
• PASAu 5 (1984) 608
• QJRAS 28 (1987) 539