biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1804–87)
|
| biography:
| Astronomer, born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, USA. A moderately successful portrait painter and engraver, he developed an interest in optics at age 40 when his son George was studying engineering. This led to the founding, with his sons George Bassett Clark (1827–91) and Alvan Graham Clark (1832–97) of Alvan Clark & Sons, makers of optical lenses for telescopes, some of unsurpassed quality. His company represented the first significant American contribution to astronomical instrument making. They tested the lenses themselves, searching the skies for difficult-to-find double stars. In 1862 Alvan won the Lalande Prize for discovering the companion of Sirius. |
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