Editing Henry Draper (section)

==Life and work==
Henry Draper's father, [[John William Draper]], was an accomplished doctor, chemist, botanist, and professor at [[New York University]]; he was also the first to photograph the moon through a telescope (1840).<ref>''The Orion Nebula: Where Stars Are Born'', Chapter 3, ''Henry Draper'', by C. Robert O'Dell, 2003, Harvard University Press, {{ISBN|067401183X}}</ref> Draper's mother was Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Gardner, daughter of the personal physician to the Emperor of [[Brazil]].  His niece, [[Antonia Maury]] was also an astronomer.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/alumni/antonia-maury.html |title=Vasser Encyclopedia: Antonia Maury |date=2008 |publisher=[[Vassar College]] |access-date=September 4, 2012}}</ref>

He graduated from [[New York University School of Medicine]], at the age of 20, in 1857.<ref>{{cite web | title = Henry Draper (1837–1882) | url = http://www.saburchill.com/HOS/astronomy/033.html | access-date = 2007-01-05 | archive-date = 2017-10-31 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171031034029/http://www.saburchill.com/HOS/astronomy/033.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> He worked first as a physician at [[Bellevue Hospital]], and later as both a professor and dean of medicine at [[New York University]] (NYU). On May 31, 1862, he joined S Company, [[12th New York Infantry Regiment]] as a surgeon along with his brother John Christopher, who joined as an assistant surgeon.<ref name=catchers>Hughes, Stefan. [https://books.google.com/books?id=iZk5OOf7fVYC&pg=PA547&dq= ''Catchers of the Light, Volume 1 - Catching Space''], ArtDeCiel Publishing, 2012, pages 546-546. {{ISBN|978-1-4675-7993-3}}</ref> They served until October 8, 1862.<ref name=catchers/> In 1867 he married [[Mary Anna Draper|Mary Anna Palmer]], a wealthy socialite who collaborated with him in his astronomy work.

[[File:Henry Draper.jpg|thumb|Henry Draper.]]

Draper was one of the pioneers of the use of [[astrophotography]]. In 1872, he took a stellar spectrum that showed [[absorption line]]s. Others, such as [[Joseph Fraunhofer]], [[Lewis Morris Rutherfurd]] and [[Angelo Secchi]], preceded him in that ambition.

He resigned his chair in the medical department in 1873, to allow for more time for original research.

He directed an expedition to photograph the 1874 [[transit of Venus]], and was the first to photograph the [[Orion Nebula]], on September 30, 1880. Using his 11&nbsp;inch [[Alvan Clark & Sons|Clark Brothers]] photographic refractor he took a 50-minute exposure. He photographed the spectrum of Jupiter in 1880.

The [[Henry Draper Observatory]] where he took his much-admired photographs of the moon, was in [[Hastings-on-Hudson]], [[New York (state)|New York]]. Today the building functions as the Hastings-on-Hudson Historical Society.

Draper received numerous awards, including honorary [[Legum Doctor|LL.D.]] law degrees from NYU and the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] in 1882, a Congressional medal for directing the U.S. expedition to photograph the 1874 transit of Venus, and election to both the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] and the [[Astronomische Gesellschaft]]. In addition, he held memberships in the [[American Photographic Society]], the [[American Philosophical Society]], the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], and the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]].

After his untimely early death from double [[pleurisy]], his widow [[Mary Anna Draper]] funded the [[Henry Draper Medal]] for outstanding contributions to [[astrophysics]] and a telescope, which was used to prepare the [[Henry Draper Catalog]] of stellar spectra. This historical Henry Draper telescope is now at the [[Toruń Centre for Astronomy]] ([[Nicolaus Copernicus University]]) at [[Piwnice, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship|Piwnice]], Poland. The small crater [[Draper (crater)|Draper]] on the [[Moon]] is named in his honor.