From Tomahawks to Telescopes

Abstract This chapter traces the genealogy of Aden Baker Meinel and Marjorie Pettit Meinel. Aden Meinel’s roots are in Klingenthal in southeastern Germany, but the earliest discovered records extend only to his grandfather, who immigrated to the United States in 1882. Marjorie’s heritage, however, can be traced directly back to Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland (1274–1329). Her father was the well-known solar astronomer Edison Pettit, who worked with his wife Hannah Bard Steele Pettit at Yerkes Observatory before he was hired by George Ellery Hale to work at Mt. Wilson Observatory in 1920. With his colleague Seth Nicholson, Edison observed the radiation from stars in different wavelengths and determined their radiometric magnitudes, temperatures, and angular diameter. They also determined the surface temperatures of the Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. A crater on the Moon and Mars is named after each of them.