The Henry Norris Russell memorial volume

The Henry Norris Russell Memorial Volume WHv.N I began my graduate work at Princeton, Henry Norris Russell was already something of a legend. I worked chiefly under Raymond Smith Dugan until his death in 1940, but had classes from Russell. The lectures were supposedly 3 hours a week and Russell chose to give his all on one afternoon. The 3-hour period proved to be an extremely elastic one with the stretch always going the same way. I have forgotten whether we started at 1 or 2 p.m.---I think it was 1 - - b u t we rarely finished before 6 or 6.30. Later, when World War I I ended and I returned to astronomical studies, Russell gave another series of lectures on eclipsing star theory. Even though he was then approaching retirement, his memory was unfailing and his grasp of material as powerful as ever. I t is not possible, even in a volume as extensive as this, to cover all the many aspects of Russell's interests. Perhaps it is appropriate that the majority of the papers concern eclipsing variables since these were of interest to Russell throughout his professional life and some of his earliest as well as some of his latest papers concerned them. His earliest work on the subject---the classical paper in the 1912 Astrophysical Journal--for the filst time made possible a general attack on the theoretical interpretation of light curves. In the hands of observers such as Dugan, this theory (or modification of it) was used for computation of many of the elements we now use. Later, in collaboration with John E. Merrill, Russell refined the methods of rectification to be in accord with current theory: together they showed how the Merrill nomograms brought not only much greater speed to solving light curves, but perhaps more important gave insight into the precision of the solution and the possibility of interdeterminate solutions. Many of the contributors to this volume are inheritors of what might be called the Dugan-Russell-Merrill philosophy of the treatment of light curves with, of course, modifications to meet more precise observations and more refined theory. I t is also, however, an extremely fortunate matter t h a t some of Russell's other interests are illustrated in papers such as those by Westerlund, Pagel and others. As one of Russell's last students, I should like to join with many in thanking Dr. Arthur Beer for undertaking the task of editing this memorial volume. University of Florida

FRANK BRADSHAW WOOD