Menzel, Donald Howard definition of Menzel, Donald Howard in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Menzel, Donald Howard, 1901–76, American astrophysicist, b. Florence, Colo. From 1926 to 1932 he was with the Lick Observatory Lick Observatory, astronomical observatory located on Mt. Hamilton, Calif., near San Jose; the first mountaintop observatory in the world, it was founded through gifts made by James Lick in 1874–75 and came under the direction of the Univ.
..... Click the link for more information. in Calif. In 1932 he joined the faculty at Harvard, where he became professor (1938) of astrophysics and director (1954) of the observatory. An authority on the sun's chromosphere, he discovered with J. C. Boyce (1933) that the sun's corona contains oxygen. With W. W. Salisbury he made (1941) the first of the calculations that led to radio contact with the moon in 1946.

Menzel, Donald Howard (1901–76) astrophysicist; born in Florence, Colo. At Harvard (1932–76), he directed the Observatory (1954–66), and became an authority on the sun's chromosphere. A prolific author of such titles as Fundamental Formulas of Physics (1955), The Universe in Action (1957), A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets (1964), he wrote that flying saucers were optical illusions.