Raymond Smith Dugan (May 30, 1878–August 31, 1940) was an American astronomer. His parents were Jeremiah Welby and Mary Evelyn Smith and he was born in Montague, Massachusetts.
His undergraduate and Masters was from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1899 and 1902. Dugan then received his Ph.D. dissertation in 1905 at the Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl (Königstuhl Observatory, near Heidelberg) at the University of Heidelberg.
At the time, the observatory at Heidelberg was a center of asteroid discovery under Max Wolf. During Dugan's time there, he discovered 16 asteroids, including notably 511 Davida.
He was employed by Princeton University as an instructor (1905–1908), assistant professor (1908–1920), and professor (1920—). He married Annette Rumford in 1909.
Dugan co-wrote an influential two-volume textbook in 1927 with Henry Norris Russell and John Quincy Stewart: Astronomy: A Revision of Young’s Manual of Astronomy (Ginn & Co., Boston, 1926-27, 1938, 1945). This became the standard astronomy textbook for about two decades. There were two volumes: the first was The Solar System and the second was Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy.
The lunar crater Dugan and the asteroid 2772 Dugan are named in his honour.
Famous quotes containing the words smith and/or dugan:
“There are few sorrows, however poignant, in which a good income is of no avail.”
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946)
“bent nails
dance all over the surfacing
like maggots”
—Alan Dugan (b. 1923)