John Stanley Plaskett (November 17, 1865 – October 17, 1941) was a Canadian astronomer.

He worked as a machinist, and was offered a job as a mechanician at the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto, constructing apparatuses and assisting with demonstrations during lectures. He found this so interesting that at the age of 30 he enrolled as an undergraduate in mathematics and physics. He stayed at the university until 1903, doing research on color photography.

His formal astronomical career did not start until 1903, when he was appointed to the staff at Dominion Observatory in Ottawa. His achievements are all the more remarkable for this very late start.

He measured radial velocities and studied spectroscopic binaries. His mechanical background was very useful for constructing various instruments.

He became first director of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, British Columbia in 1917 (not to be confused with the old Dominion Observatory in Ottawa).

He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1930, the Bruce Medal in 1932, and the Henry Draper Medal in 1934. He was also awarded a CBE.

A crater on the Moon is named after him.

External links

Obituaries

• MNRAS 102 (1942) 70 (http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0102//0000070.000.html)
• Obs 64 (1941) 183 (http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/Obs../0064//0000183.000.html) (one paragraph)
• PASP 53 (1941) 323 (http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/PASP./0053//0000323.000.html)