James Edward Keeler

James Edward Keeler
James Edward Keeler
Born	(1857-09-10)September 10, 1857 La Salle, Illinois
Died	August 12, 1900(1900-08-12) (aged 42) San Francisco, California
Nationality	United States
Fields	Astronomy
Institutions	Lick Observatory Allegheny Observatory
Known for	Astrophysical Journal Rings of Saturn astrophotography
Notable awards	Henry Draper Medal (1899)

James Edward Keeler (September 10, 1857 – August 12, 1900) was an American astronomer.

Keeler worked at Lick Observatory beginning in 1888, but left after being appointed director of the University of Pittsburgh's Allegheny Observatory in 1891. He returned to Lick Observatory as its director in 1898, but died not long after in 1900. His ashes were interred in a crypt at the base of the 31-inch Keeler Memorial telescope at the Allegheny Observatory.

Along with George Hale, Keeler founded and edited the Astrophysical Journal, which remains a major journal of astronomy today.

His parents were William F. and Anna (née Dutton) Keeler. He had married in 1891 and left a widow and two children.

Keeler was the first to observe the gap in Saturn's rings now known as the Encke Gap, using the 36-inch refractor at Lick Observatory on 7 January 1888. After this feature had been named for Johann Encke, who had observed a much broader variation in the brightness of the A Ring, Keeler's contributions were brought to light. The second major gap in the A Ring, discovered by Voyager, was named the Keeler Gap in his honor.

In 1895, his spectroscopic study of the rings of Saturn revealed that different parts of the rings reflect light with different Doppler shifts, due to their different rates of orbit around Saturn. This was the first observational confirmation of the theory of James Clerk Maxwell that the rings are made up of countless small objects, each orbiting Saturn at its own rate. These observations were made with a spectrograph attached to the 13-inch Fitz-Clark refracting telescope at Allegheny Observatory.