Edward Charles Pickering (July 19, 1846 – February 3, 1919) was an American astronomer and physicist. He is best known for his pioneering work in spectroscopy, and his discovery of the first spectroscopic binary stars. Pickering was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Harvard University, where he graduated with a degree in physics in 1865. He then went on to become a professor of physics at Harvard, and later became the director of the Harvard College Observatory. Pickering was a pioneer in the field of spectroscopy, and was the first to measure the radial velocities of stars using spectroscopy. He also discovered the first spectroscopic binary stars, which are two stars that orbit each other and can be detected by their spectra. Pickering was also a prolific author, writing numerous books and papers on astronomy and physics. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and was awarded the Henry Draper Medal in 1906. He died in 1919 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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