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The McMath-Pierce Facility (1Dec92)
(from NSO, NOAO Newsletter No. 32, 1 December 1992)

On 15 September, the Assistant Director of the National Science
Foundation for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, William C. Harris,
approved our request "that the National Solar Observatory facility on
Kitt Peak, presently known as the McMath Solar Telescope, be renamed
the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope Facility honoring A. Keith Pierce for
his long and distinguished career in solar physics and at one of our
National Centers. We agree that attaching his name to the facility with
which he has been so closely involved since its inception is an
appropriate and deserved honor."

Pierce was responsible for the concept, the initial layout, and the
optical design of the McMath telescope, and during the design and
construction stages he was involved in every detail of the work. His
leadership has been critical to the success of the implementation of
what remains after thirty years the world's largest solar telescope,
and which because of its unique, unobstructed, all- reflecting design
is extremely well suited to the rapidly developing interest in solar
infrared studies. In addition to being one of the greatest of the
astronomical instrumentalists of the twentieth century, and in spite of
his administrative responsibilities leading the solar program over the
years, Pierce has been a very productive researcher, turning out many
excellent research papers. Pierce, along with Leo Goldberg and Orren
Mohler, was one of the pioneers in infrared solar spectroscopy, a field
whose potential and importance are only now being fully realized. In a
remarkable series of papers, for all of which Pierce is the first
author, he published work done in collaboration with Goldberg, Lawrence
Aller and others. This work represented not only the first definitive
studies of the solar infrared spectrum, but also the best models of
solar atmospheric structure produced to that time, based in part on his
own limb darkening measures, some of which are still the standard
against which such measurements are judged.  Along the way, Pierce
published the definitive measurements of photospheric and chromospheric
line wavelengths.  These are among the most important reference
materials ever to come from Kitt Peak. More recently Pierce's attention
has turned to high-precision determinations of the gravitational red-
shift of the Sun. Here again he is creating the definitive body of work
in this area, which will be referenced for years to come. Over the
years Pierce's research has been characterized by careful and thorough
work in important areas of fundamental science. His legacy as a
research scientist as well as an instrumentalist will live for a very
long time.

Pierce has served AURA as a scientific staff member longer than any
other astronomer--he was one of the first two members (with Aden
Meinel) of the scientific staff of KPNO, starting in 1958--and he
continues to work very actively, as AURA's first astronomer emeritus.
He is currently the Project Scientist for a major activity to upgrade
the vertical spectrograph, with a new visible grating and incorporation
of the world's largest IR grating. (See a separate article in this
Newsletter.)

A rededication of the McMath-Pierce facility took place at the Facility
on Kitt Peak, on 7 November, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of
the facility's dedication with nearly 100 participants from Hawaii to
Washington attending, including several of the engineers responsible
for its construction.

John Leibacher

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