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WILLEM JACOB LUYTEN
March 7, IS99-November2l, 1994
BY ARTHUR UPGREN
Wl~EM LUMEN WAS the central figure in the determina-
tion of the stellar luminosity function, the frequency
function of stars by their luminosity. In this, his major re-
search contribution, he follower! in the tradition of Dutch
astronomers, mostly of the Leiclen Observatory, which be-
gan before 1900 with I. C. Kapteyn en c! incluclec! P. I. van
Rhijn, Ejnar Hertzsprung, Willem De Sitter, en c! {an H. Oort.
Luyten was one of a number of clistinguishec! students of
these scientists who emigratec! to the Uniter! States en c! hac!
a memorable career. His contemporaries incluclec! Bart I.
Bok, Dirk Brouwer, Gerarc! P. Kuiper, Jan SchiTt, Kaj Aa.
Strand, en c! Peter van cle Kamp.
Luyten spoke of his ancestry as part French, originating
in Provence in the fourteenth century. The family name
may have been Lutin en c! clerivec! from lute players en c!
minstrels attending the popes who resiclec! in Avignon. In
1377 the popes mover! back to Rome en c! the progenitor
lute player resettlec! at the Court of Burgundy. The flukes
there uniter! the cities of HolIancI, en c! cluring clucal rule
over the next century, the family may have fount! its way to
the NetherIancis. His mother's family name of Francken
reveals her origin there.
199
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200
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Luyten, himself, was born of parents of North HollancI,
who hac! settlec! in Indonesia, then a colony of the Nether-
lancis. His birth on March 7, 1899, was in the city of Semarang
in north-central Java, where his father taught French in the
local high school. Luyten liver! there until 1912, when the
family mover! back to the NetherIancis. At that time he spoke
Dutch en c! French, he also became fluent in German en c!
English before his high school graduation. Later in college
he masterec! Latin en c! Greek, en c! still later, he picket! up
some Spanish en c! Italian, en c! finally, in 1927, Russian. He
was rightfully prouc! of his ability to learn to react en c! speak
so many languages.
Willem Luyten's interest in astronomy ciates from the 1910
appearance of Halley's comet over his home in Semarang.
He macle his first astronomical observations on lava in 1912,
en c! continues! them while a student at the University of
Amsterdam, where he received a B.A. degree in 1918. His
earliest research was publisher! at that time en c! he com-
pleted his doctoral thesis four years later at the University
of Leiden, where he was awarded his Ph.D. degree in 1921.
He was Hertzsprung's first student there. Luyten's thesis
was baser! on 13,500 visual observations of variable stars,
some of which he macle in high school en c! others with the
6-inch refractor at the Leiclen Observatory. His contacts at
Leiclen incluclec! Kapteyn, cle Sitter, en c! Paul Ehrenfest, at
whose home he socializer! on occasion with Albert Einstein,
Hencirik Lorentz, en c! A. S. Eciclington.
Although he became interested in many lines of astro-
nomical research, Luyten's lifelong interest centered on the
properties of the common nearby stars en c! especially their
proper motions. Near the end of his career, he participated
in International Astronomical Union Colloquium No. 97
on wicle components in clouble en c! multiple stars hell! in
1987 in Brussels, which was cleclicatec! to him. There he
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WILLEM JACOB LUYTEN
201
gave a review of his lifetime of research on these objects. In
it he remarkoc! that:
We should remember that, . . . of the 6,000 stars [that] the average human
eye could see in the entire sky, probably not more than thirty or one-half
of one percent are less luminous than the Sun; that probably, of the 700-
odd stars nearer than ten parsecs, at least 96% are less luminous than the
Sun. There is not even ONE real yellow giant such as Capella, Pollux, or
Arcturus nearer than ten parsecs and only about four Main-Sequence A
stars.
He was always aware of the havoc this great dichotomy be-
tween the brightest en c! the nearest stars fraught as it is
with bias conic! wreak upon anyone who clic! not take full
account of it in their work.
Perhaps no one explorer! the immensity of this dichotomy
in more cletail than clic! Luyten. He turner! his early interest
in proper motions into a better calibration of the HR clia-
gram than hac! been known at the time. His early years at
the Lick Observatory en c! as a guest investigator at the Royal
Greenwich Observatory witnessed his clevelopment en c! ap-
plication of techniques using proper motions to estimate
the distances of stars in large numbers. Through the use of
Hertzsprung's concept of the reclucec! proper motion to
obtain statistical paralIaxes for common stars, he was the
first to provicle a realistic census of stars in the solar neigh-
borhooc! en c! an HR diagram more truly representative of
the fainter stars that dominate the solar neighborhood.
The reclucec! proper motion connects the apparent en c!
absolute magnitudes (luminosities) with proper motion in
much the same way as are the apparent en c! absolute mag-
nitucles with trigonometric parallax. lust as the parallax fixes
the absolute magnitude exactly, so do proper motions roughly
determine it. Roughly, because proper motions of stars at a
given distance differ consiclerably. But, if many stars are
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
examiner! en c! the mean proper motion is caTibratec! on
parallax, the methoc! works.
It is worth noting that, not long ago, the only properties
known about the majority of the nearest stellar neighbors
were the apparent magnitude and the proper motion. In
fact, the proper motion became the feature by which a faint
nearby star conic! be recognizec! as such. In his autobiogra-
phy published in 1987, Luyten cites his seventy years of
work on this subject. His amazingly extensive en c! pioneer-
ing efforts in this domain dwarf those of anyone else. Since
1925 he cleterminec! over 200,000 proper motions, itself a
testimonial to his stamina en c! cleclication. In 1925 Luyten
lost the sight of one eye in a tennis accident. Thus, he
accomplishes! all of this with his remaining eye, it is prob-
able that he has blinkocI, observed, en c! measurer! more
stellar images than anyone else.
The prececling feat alone wouIc! merit a permanent place
in the annals of astronomy, but his insight into the worth of
the collectec! ciata lies even more at the center of his achieve-
ment. His Dutch predecessors especially Kapteyn, van Rhijn,
and his Danish mentor at Leiden, Ejnar Hertzsprung picked
up about where Sir William Herschel left off a century ear-
lier in the study of the stellar makeup of the Milky Way.
The luminosity function concept was well known by the
time Luyten enterer! the scene, but it was he, working al-
most alone, who first Filly! in its faint end.
In 1923, after two years at the Lick Observatory, Luyten
was offerer! a position at the Harvarc! College Observatory
by HarIow Shapley. He spent the next seven years on its
staff, the last two in Bloemfontein, South Africa. At both
Lick en c! Harvard, Luyten was engages! in a number of other
research subjects. While at Lick, he preclictec! en c! confirmed!
that the sodium D lines cliffer wiclely in intensity among the
cooler stars, between giants and normal dwarfs of the same
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WILLEM JACOB LUYTEN
203
surface temperature. But his Harvarc! years became clomi-
natec! by the stucly of proper motions that former! the ma-
jor focus of research for the rest of his professional life.
At Harvarc! en c! Bloemfontein, he began his Tong associa-
tion with the 0.6-meter Bruce refracting telescope. Between
IS96 en c! 1910 at its former location at Arequipa, Peru, the
telescope hac! been user! to photograph almost the entire
southern celestial hemisphere in three-hour exposures that
reacher! the seventeenth magnitude. Altogether, the collec-
tion comprises! more than 1,000 plates. These plates conic!
serve as first-epoch observations for a large proper motion
survey, en c! in 1927, with the air! of a Guggenheim Fellow-
ship, the Bruce Proper Motion Survey began. Luyten took
over 300 of the 1,000 plates forming the seconcI-epoch ma-
terial en c! blinker! all of the plate pairs. Altogether 94,263
stars with significant proper motions were founcI. Most of
these stars were brighter than magnitude 14.5 en c! hac! proper
motions in excess of one-tenth of an arc seconc! per year.
The measurement of positions en c! proper motions for these
stars took many years to acquire, en c! requires! a number of
measurers, inclucling myself cluring my unclergracluate clays
at Minnesota. The final catalog appearec! in 1963.
In compiling this catalog, Luyten shower! much resource-
fuIness. In ~ 923 he publisher! a paper in which he em-
ployed a cumulative probability plot, or probit plot, de-
cacles before its common use in astronomy. These plots
outliner! a technique for determining whether specific sets
of ciata follow a Gaussian distribution by rendering the cu-
mulative normal distribution into linear form. The test is
often more robust than the Kolmogorov-Smirnov en c! simi-
lar goociness-of-fit tests for randomness.
In funcling such a long-term project, he was creative en c!
persistent, at different periods he acknowlecigec! not only
the National Science Foundation en c! the Office of Naval
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Research but also other fecleral relief organizations, such as
the fecleral student air! program en c! even the Works Progress
Administration, along with a number of private philanthropic
sources.
The Bruce Proper Motion Survey lee! to improvements in
stellar kinematics at the faint enc! of the luminosity func-
tion, but it also proviclec! a rich harvest of degenerate stars,
known also as white dwarfs. These are enc! products of stel-
lar evolution with degenerate matter in their interiors after
the fusion process has compacter! their atomic nuclei en c!
compressed them into planet-size objects. One of the goals
of the survey was to cliscover en c! identify many degenerate
or white dwarf stars. Only three were known in 1921, when
Luyten began his term at Lick, far too few to support the
many theoretical studies macle of them then en c! since. Luyten
collaborates! with E. F. Carpenter of the University of Ari-
zona, E. Gaviola of the Corcloba Observatory, en c! G. Haro
of the TonantzintIa Observatory to obtain colors of the faint
proper motion stars fount! in the survey. From the colors,
magnitudes, en c! assumer! distances, the degenerates were
iclentifiec! as such and, by the time of its publication in
1963, Luyten hac! cliscoverec! the great majority of the sev-
eral huncirec! then known.
With the completion of the Bruce survey project, Luyten
sought to extent! its achievements in the search for stellar
neighbors, to fainter magnitudes, en c! to the northern ce-
lestial hemisphere, which was not observable with the Bruce
telescope in its southerly locations. For these reasons, he
initiates! the immense project known as the National Geo-
graphic/Palomar Observatory survey. The name honors the
principal sponsor en c! the I.2-~.~-meter Palomar Schmidt
telescope on which much of the plate material hac! aIreacly
been obtained. This wicle-fielc! instrument hac! photographic!
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WILLEM JACOB LUYTEN
205
the entire sky north of clecTination -34° en c! to stars of
magnitude ~ 8 en c! fainter.
This is the plate material that former! the Palomar Ob-
servatory Sky Survey of the 1950s en c! is still very useful
tociay. It also proviclec! an icleal first epoch for the measure
of proper motions. Luyten quickly realizer! that the oIc! blink
machine at Minnesota, on which measures for the Bruce
survey were macle by hancI, was much too slow for this project.
He approaches! the Control Data Corporation with plans to
built! a rapicI-scanning microclensitometer. The CDC ma-
chine, clesignec! primarily by lames Newcomb en c! Anton
LaBonte, became the fastest of the new generation of auto-
matic machines capable of measuring en c! blinking stellar
images with high precision. It finally became possible to
determine the proper motions of huncirecis of thousands of
stars in a short time, in a few years motions for 300,000
stars were founcI, cloubling the number with these ciata.
The catalogues that emerges! from this effort are among
the most wiclely user! in the fielcI. They inclucle the first
rounc! of catalogues of 1955 to 1961, the LET (Luyten-Five-
Tenths) catalogue of 1,849 stars, en c! the LTT (Luyten Two-
Tenths) catalogue of 16,994 stars with proper motions ex-
ceecling 0."5 en c! 0."2 arc seconds per year, respectively.
Twenty years later, well after his retirement, he publisher!
their successors, the LHS (Luyten Half SeconcI) en c! NLTT
(New Luyten Two-Tenths) catalogues with the same limits,
but with 3,583 en c! 58,700 stars.
Honors accrues! to Luyten at about the time of his retire-
ment in 1967, he was the Catherine Wolfe Bruce mecialist
of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 1968, en c! was
electec! to the National Academy of Sciences in 1970. Also
in 1970 he receiver! an honorary doctorate degree from St.
Ancirew's University, the oIclest eclucational institution in
ScotiancI, only Benjamin Franklin en c! two others prececlec!
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206
. .
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
him in the aware! of this honor. He organizer! en c! heaclec!
the first conference hell! specifically on proper motions.
The meeting was hell! at the Control Data Corporation in
Minneapolis in April 1970, en c! the proceedings constitutes!
the International Astronomical Union Colloquium No. 7.
However one obtains a value for the stellar luminosity
function, one must calibrate the ciata for the many thou-
sancis of stars coverer! in the survey against a much smaller
group of stars for which the incliviclual luminosities are cli-
rectly determined from the parallax. Until the present de-
cacle, these were few en c! were biases! in one way or an-
other. For his calibration sample Luyten user! 610 stars with
proper motions in excess of 0.5 arc seconds per year, en c!
for which luminosities were available from trigonometric
?aralIaxes.
In 1964 James Wanner completer! a cloctoral thesis at
Harvarc! University on the same subject but with a different
calibration group. Wanner user! a limit in distance insteac!
of proper motion as his major criterion. He user! only stars
within ten parsecs of the Sun Il7 altogether which also
fulfilled secondary criteria in parallax and proper motion.
Wanner's technique has the advantage of being far less sus-
ceptible to a bias towards stars with a high velocity across
the sky. Both Luyten and Wanner used Hertzsprung's ap-
proach, but with proper motions being such a funciamental
parameter in Luyten's work, a high-velocity bias is apparent
in the result. Wanner's function comes closer to recent cle-
terminations that can to a large extent bypass proper mo-
tion en c! thus better represent all stars in this part of the
galaxy.
This controversy became a matter of great contention,
until settled by access to very large stellar samples with
distances cleterminec! for each star incliviclually. Luyten's
function was vitiates! only among the very faintest of stars,
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WILLEM JACOB LUYTEN
207
unfortunately, these are the ones most critical to the stucly
of certain aspects of stellar evolution en c! of other plan-
etary systems. They are also among the hardest to moclel,
to assign with confidence the interior domains of racliative
en c! convective energy transfer by which the energy pro-
clucec! at the stellar core rises to the surface en c! out into
space. In any event, the merit of his work is beyonc! re-
proach when we consider the ciata en c! methods available
to him at the time.
Willem Luyten joined the faculty of the University of Min-
nesota in 1931, his appointment at Harvarc! having been
terminatec! the previous autumn, apparently without cause.
In his autobiography, Luyten contends that Henry Norris
Russell, then the putative "clean of American astronomers,"
was instrumental in the termination. He describes their
first encounter: Luyten hac! comparer! stellar luminosities
from Mount Wilson spectral classifications en c! from paral-
laxes en c! hac! concluclec! that, if all M giants were assignee!
the same luminosity, the mean error in luminosity from
parallax wouIc! be reclucecI. Upon seeing this work, Russell,
according to Luyten, saicI, "Even if this were true, I conic!
say it, but you can't." Young Luyten responclecI, "I thought
that in science the only thing that matterec! was what was
sail! not who sail! it." These en c! further encounters alleg-
ecITy turner! the influential Russell against him.
Over his career, Luyten publisher! some 500 research pa-
pers en c! wrote numerous popular articles for the New York
Times, Minneapolis Star and Tribune, en c! other perioclicals.
His association with the Times began in 1925 with his report
on the total solar eclipse of that year as seen from the air.
He credits its editors with his success in obtaining the Min-
nesota position after a long job search.
At Minnesota, where a single astronomer was then in fash-
ion, he succeeclec! the binary star astronomer en c! observer
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Francis P. Leavenworth, who retiree! en c! cliec! in 1928. At
some time cluring the three-year interim, the observatory
en c! its 0.25-meter refracting telescope were mover! to the
top of the then new physics building, a questionable im-
provement in location. Neither astronomer hac! a role in
this decision. While a student there, I cliscoverec! that the
coordinates of the oic! site hac! continues! to be propagates!
in the literature. Luyten concurred, but he may not have
correctec! the error in the American Ephemeris en c! else-
where, where the oic! coordinates were listec! until at least
1 980.
I knew his work habits well. He user! a blink machine to
align two plates taken years apart to discover the stars that
mover! noticeably, en c! were therefore likely to be nearby
neighbors of the Sun. This was exhausting work, en c! none
of the rest of us conic! stanc! to do it for Tong. With his one
goof! eye, he conic! blink for hours at a time, his persever-
ance seemec! limitless. The rest of us measurer! the loca-
tions of each moving star en c! several of its neighbors for
positions en c! enterer! them in notebooks. In that computer-
less era, we neeclec! to combine the two motion compo-
nents along each of the two orthogonal axes, into a total
motion en c! direction. From repeater! use, I came to know
the squares of all integers from ~ to 100 from memory.
Luyten was a master in teaching students to make offl,anc!
estimates, always a difficult point to get across. For example,
he encouragec! the memorization of the logarithms of 2, 3,
and 7. From these, one can quickly derive the logarithms of
any integer up to ten en c! can interpolate larger ones closely.
At the completion of the information on motions in each
fielcI, he wouic! assign magnitudes to the stars that hac! moved.
Having none of the photometric equipment of today, he
would, with an eyepiece in hand, call out the magnitudes to
be recorded. He claimed that a certain image size was set at
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WILLEM JACOB LUYTEN
209
magnitude 12.7, as I recall, en c! he went on from there. He
was well aware that emulsion en c! other differences pro-
clucec! a consiclerable magnitude error of as much as a full
magnitude. On this he wouic! cite a rule common to as-
tronomers of his generation en c! all but forgotten since,
that the systematic errors conic! be assumer! to be about
one-fifth of the acciclental errors from all sources. (I heart!
this same remark from his contemporaries Bart Bok en c!
Peter van cle Kamp as well.)
Until his retirement in 1967, he regularly taught intro-
cluctory astronomy, as well as some acivancec! courses, at the
university. His enthusiasm extenclec! to every corner of as-
tronomy, as was evident in lectures en c! in conversation, I
for one learner! very much from him, insicle en c! outside
the classroom. He was a superb teacher, en c! he regales! the
students with stories that reveaTec! a clelightfuT sense of hu-
mor. After getting off a bon mot, he retainer! his typical
saturnine facial expression, but the twinkle in his eyes was
notes! by many.
His strainer! en c! sometimes hostile approach to some of
his colleagues en c! the public in general never extenclec! to
students, as I well know. Typical of his gruff public manner
was an item appearing in a column by "Mr. Fixit" in the
Minneapolis Tribune in 1956. A woman hac! written for the
identity of a brilliant star appearing in the sky. She cited
her neighbor as an authority on astronomy who hac! never
behelc! such a spectacle before. "I referrer! your query to
Prof. Willem l. Luyten, chairman of the University of Min-
nesota Department of Astronomy," Mr. Fixit repliecI. "His
comment: 'If you remover! the drama en c! hooky, the planet
Venus is left."'
Yet, it was clear that he knew the place en c! value of
humor in his lectures en c! other remarks. In response to a
student in my introductory course with him, who was hav
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
ing trouble visualizing a galaxy, he remarkoc! that a galaxy
looks like a cow pie. Typical of his humorous gruffness was
his response to a persistent telephone. He finally interruptec!
a lecture in my celestial mechanics class to answer it. After
a minute, he returnee! en c! grumblecI, "Some SOB has a
piece of shiny steel he thinks is a meteorite." Amidst riot-
ous laughter, he resumes! his lecture. His fluency in English
was assurer! if a bit florid. This is evident in his popular
book on astronomy The Pageant of the Stars, first publisher!
in 1929, with a seconc! eclition appearing five years later.
Willem Luyten became a factor in my own enthusiasm
for astronomy more than once. It was he who, in the spring
of 1940, pointer! out to me the five nakocI-eye planets strung
along the ecliptic in the western sky at clusk. Later that year
he invites! me to see Jupiter en c! Saturn through the refrac-
tor. Yet, ten years afterward, when I matriculates! at the
university, I still hac! no thought of astronomy as a profes-
sion, en c! I took up engineering instead. After three years
of a mediocre recorc! baser! squarely on a lack of interest, I
consiclerec! astronomy as a career. When I approaches! him
about a change of careers, he promptly saicI, "You get the
hell out of engineering en c! into astronomy, where you be-
long." I have never regretted taking his advice.
Later, after my graduate work was completecI, I fell afoul
of his wrath more than once. At issue was a group of seven
F-type stars near the North Galactic Pole that simple Pois-
son statistics strongly suggester! must be physically associ-
ated. From spectroscopic and photometric evidence they
appearec! to form a small cluster of the oIc! clisk popula-
tion, similar in age to the well-known clusters M 67 en c!
. . ~
NGC 188. Later known as Upgren I, this is the fourth or
fifth nearest cluster to the Solar System.
The evidence for physical association from proper mo-
tions was marginal, with 3 to 5 of the 7 stars showing paral
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WILLEM JACOB LUYTEN
211
le! motion. Luyten's complaint was that proper motion in-
formation shouIc! be paramount in the recognition of a
group of stars as a cluster. He publisher! a partial refutation
centerec! on this point, en c! never again cliscussec! it, en c!
soon turner! his attention to correct the perceived mistakes
of others. Recent raclial velocities confirm five stars as mem-
bers, though no longer gravitationally bound together.
More than once in his writings, Luyten quoter! Lorc! Pe-
ter Wimsey, Dorothy Sayers's fictional detective, who remarkoc!
in Gaudy Night that "the point about it is that the only
ethical principle which has macle science possible is that
the truth shall be toIc! all the time. If we clo not penalize
false statements macle in error, we open up the way for false
statements macle by intention." This comment became his
touchstone for professional behavior, en c! in his own way
he applier! it relentlessly to himself en c! to his colleagues.
Couplet! with an intransigent approach towards the propri-
etary rights of one who first studies a star or group of stars,
it lee! to repeater! admonishments on his part of a number
of clistinguishec! colleagues in en c! out of astronomy. Such
actions resultec! in embittered relations en c! even total alien-
ation between him en c! some of them. Most took it in stricle
or responclec! in kind. But the potential for harm to the
career of a younger astronomer was not always negligible.
Luyten hac! a talent for alliterative broacisicles in his pub-
lications. Some of his feistiest papers bore such titles en c!
references to colleagues as "The Messiahs of the Missing
Mass," "More Bedtime Stories from Lick," en c! "The Weistrop
Watergate." They macle for very amusing reacting, but they
were too clisrespectful en c! too full of negative allusions to
his colleagues en c! their work to be at all times in the best
interest of science, even though much in them was factually
correct. In his later years, he referrer! to himself as a cur-
mucigeon, an epithet bestowoc! on him at times by others.
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
In this, too, a certain modicum of humor crept into his
otherwise stern bearing. Although we met on several occa-
sions since then, he last spoke to me at the general assem-
bly of the International Astronomical Union in Patras, Greece,
in 1982.
While living en c! working in South Africa, Willem Luyten
met en c! marries! Willemina Mieclema, it was a close mar-
riage en c! laster! over sixty years until his cleath on Novem-
ber ill, 1994. The Luytens hac! three chilciren, all among
my neighborhood! chiTc~hooc! acquaintances. Mona Coatzee
is now on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh, Ann
Dieperink was a Fulbright scholar en c! is a practicing attor-
ney, and James Luyten earned a Ph.D. degree in physics at
Harvarc! en c! is now an oceanographer at the Woocis Hole
Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts. All
three are marries! to professional people en c! have families
of their own.
In 1939, about when I first knew him, he and Mrs. Luyten
built a house only a block from my own, not far from the
university campus in Minneapolis. It was the only one of an
art deco style ultramoclern for the time in a neighbor-
hooc! of gables, dormers, en c! pitcher! roofs. Although it
appears conventional tociay, it is almost as conspicuously
different from its neighbors as is Frank Lloyc! Wright's
Guggenheim Museum in New York City. In his home, as in
so much of his life, he was a nonconformist among non-
conformists. He liver! in that house for the remainder of
his life en c! cliec! there over half a century later. In home
en c! family life, he lee! a remarkably stable existence. He
was a man of many interests in aciclition to astronomy. His
well-known knowledge of wines, especially those of Burgundy,
was occasional! by many annual visits to that region of France
for tasting en c! other celebration.
Willem Luyten maintainer! his research activity cluring
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WILLEM JACOB LUYTEN
213
the years after his retirement. He remainec! steadfast to his
principles, but principle is best tempered at times with com-
passion en c! forgiveness. This he too selclom realizer! in the
course of his relations with other astronomers. Yet, however
he may come to be jucigec! by those who knew him, he
remains almost universally respected as the great imagina-
tive en c! cleclicatec! scholar en c! scientist he was. They are
likely to agree with Shakespeare that "he was a man, take
him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again."
MY PRIMARY SOURCE for this memoir was Willem Luyten's own autobi-
ography (1987~. Secondary sources were a paper by Helmut Abt in
Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. (80~19681:247-251) written upon Luyten's award
of the Bruce Medal, and obituaries by Dorrit Hoffleit in 7. Am.
Assoc. Variable Star Obs. (24~19961:43-49) end bymyselfinPubl.Astron.
Soc. Pac. (107~19951:603-605) and Q. 7. Roy. Astron. Soc. (37~19961:
453-456~. In addition, I relied on many memories I have of Willem
and his family over nearly five decades and some correspondence
with him. I have included only the anecdotes that I witnessed or
verified from independent evidence.
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214
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1922
Observations of variable stars. Ann. Obs. Leiden 13: 1-64.
On the relation of mean parallax to proper motion, apparent mag-
nitude, and spectrum. Lick Obs. Bull. 336:135-40.
1923
On the form of the distribution law of stellar velocities. Proc. Natl.
A cad. Sci. U.S.A. 9:181.
A study of the nearby stars. Hare. Obs. Ann. 85:73-115.
Note on the possible relation between the intensity of the sodium
lines and absolute magnitude. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 35:175.
On the mean absolute magnitudes of the K and M giants and the
synthetic errors in trogonometric parallaxes. Proc. Natl. A cad. Sci.
U.S.A. 9:317-23.
1925
With E. B. Wilson. The population of New York City and its envi-
rons. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 11:137.
1926
The properties of stars in the solar neighborhood. Sci. Mon. 32:494.
1930
On the systematic and accidental errors of modern trigonometric
parallaxes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 16:464.
1934
Report on the state of the Bruce Proper Motion Survey. Publ. Astron.
Soc. Pac. 46:194.
1938
On the distribution of absolute magnitudes in the vicinity of the
Sun. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 98:677.
1942
On the origin of the Solar System. Astrophys. f. 96:482.
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WILLEM JACOB LUYTEN
1945
215
A proposal for the classification of white dwarf spectra. Astrophys. I.
101:131.
1952
The spectra and luminosities of white dwarfs. Astrophys. I. 116:283.
1955
A Catalogue of 1849 Stars With Motions Exceeding 0".5 Annually. Min-
neapolis: Lund Press.
1956
White dwarfs and degenerate stars. Vistas in Astronomy, p. 1048.
1957
A Catalogue of 9867 Stars in the Southern Hemisphere With Motions Larger
Than 0".2. Minneapolis: Lund Press.
1958
The Hyades: A search for faint blue stars. Faint Blue Stars X.
1961
A Catalogue of 7127 Stars in the Northern Hemisphere With Motions Larger
Than O ". 2. Minneapolis: Lund Press.
1963
Bruce Proper Motion Survey General Catalogue: The Motions of
94,000 Stars.
Proper Motion Survey With the 48-Inch Schmidt Telescope. I. Or-
ganization and Purpose. Proper Motion Survey I.
1965
The luminosities of faint blue stars. In Proceedings of the First Confer-
ence on Faint Blue Stars, ed. pp. 66-72. Saint Paul: Hill Founda-
tion.
1967
A comparison between the Bruce, Palomar Schmidt, and Lowell
proper motions. Pub. Minn. 3:20.
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216
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1971
Performance of an automated computerized plate scanner. Proc.
Natl. A cad. Sci. U.S.A. 68:513.
1974
The Weistrop Watergate. Proper Motion Survey XXXVIII.
1976
On the alleged plethora of nearby M dwarfs with little or no proper
motion. Proper Motion Survey XLVI.
LHS catalogue: Proper motions for 3583 stars larger than 0".5 an-
nually. Univ. Minn. Publ.
1980
NLTT catalogue: Proper motions larger than 0".18 annually for 58,700
stars.
1981
More bedtime stories from Lick. Proper Motion Survey LVI.
1986
Data and proper motions for 250,000 faint stars on magnetic tape.
1987
My First 72 Years of Astronomical Research: Reminiscences of an Astro-
nomical Curmudgeon, Revealing the Presence of Human Nature in Sci-
ence. Minneapolis: W. J. Luyten.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
proper motions
