20 Facts About Jay Pasachoff

Jay Pasachoff worked at the Harvard College Observatory and Caltech before going to Williams College in 1972.

Jay Pasachoff has taken a leading role in the science and history of transits of Mercury and Venus, as an analogue to exoplanet studies, leading up to the transit of Venus, and the 2016 and 2019 transits of Mercury.

Jay Pasachoff died on November 20,2022, at the age of 79.

Jay Pasachoff observed with a wide variety of ground-based telescopes and spacecraft, and reported on those activities in writing his texts.

Jay Pasachoff carried out extensive scientific work at total solar eclipses, and championed the continued contemporary scientific value of solar eclipse research.

Jay Pasachoff's research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the National Geographic Society.

Jay Pasachoff was Chair of the Working Group on Eclipses of the International Astronomical Union of the Sun and Heliosphere Division and of the Education, Outreach, and Heritage Division.

Jay and Naomi Pasachoff wrote a review of Alexander Borodin's solar-inspired opera for Nature produced by the New York Metropolitan Opera in 2014.

Also with his wife, Naomi, Jay Pasachoff wrote biographies of Henry Norris Russell, John Pond, Hypatia, and Edward Williams Morley for the Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers.

Jay Pasachoff collaborated with scientists from Williams College and MIT to observe the atmospheres of outer planets and their moons, including Pluto, its moon Charon, Neptune's moon Triton, and other objects in the outer Solar System.

Jay Pasachoff has used radio astronomy made observations of the interstellar medium with scientists from Hofstra University and elsewhere, concentrating on deuterium.

Jay Pasachoff was US National Liaison to and was President Commission on Education and Development, which is Commission C1 on Astronomy Education and Development of Division C on Education, Outreach, and Heritage, of the International Astronomical Union.

Jay Pasachoff was on the Council of Advisors of the Astronomy Education Review.

Jay Pasachoff spearheaded a discussion of what should be taught in astronomy courses, championing the position of including and emphasizing contemporary astronomy.

Jay Pasachoff was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.

Jay Pasachoff lectured widely, including a stint as a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer.

Jay Pasachoff was Director of the Hopkins Observatory and Chair of the Astronomy Department at Williams.

Jay Pasachoff was Chair of the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society.

In 1974, Jay Pasachoff married Naomi in a Jewish ceremony.

Dr Naomi Jay Pasachoff, is a writer and the daughter of economist Anna Schwartz.