Alexander Vyssotsky

Who was Alexander Vyssotsky?

Alexander Nikolayevich Vyssotsky was an astronomer. Vyssotsky was born in Moscow, Imperial Russia, and received his master degree from Moscow State University.

During his 35 years at the McCormick Observatory of the University of Virginia, USA he published many works. His best known is probably a catalog with five lists of stars entitled Dwarf M Stars Found Spectrophotometrically. This work was important because it was the first list of nearby stars identified not by their motions in the sky, but by their intrinsic, spectroscopic, characteristics. Until this time, most nearby stars had been identified by their large proper motions; however, not all stars close to the Sun have a large proper motion, and this selection criteria caused a bias in studies before the advent of Vyssotsky's catalogue. Vyssotsky's survey was carried out at McCormick Observatory using a 10-inch Cooke astrograph, donated by the Carnegie Institution of Washington and refigured by J. W. Fecker. It was used with an objective prism, which allowed spectra to be taken of all the stars in the field of view simultaneously.