Milton Humason

Milton Humason was an American astronomer who worked closely with Edwin Hubble at Mount Wilson Observatory to measure the redshifts of distant nebulae in the early twentieth century, providing key observational evidence for the expansion of the universe and helping formulate what became known as Hubble Law. Humason had no formal education past age fourteen, and his path to the observatory was unusual: he worked as a mule skinner during the construction of Mount Wilson Observatory and later as its janitor before being hired to the scientific staff in 1919, an appointment considered unprecedented since he held neither a doctorate nor a high school diploma. He became known for his skill in obtaining photographs and difficult spectrograms of faint galaxies, work that was essential to Hubble redshift program. Humason also discovered a comet, C/1961 R1, and received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Lund University in 1950 before retiring from Mount Wilson in 1957.