BEMPORAD, AZEGLIO

BEMPORAD, AZEGLIO (1875–1945), Italian astronomer. Bemporad, who was born in Siena, was appointed director of the Capodimonte Observatory near Catania in Sicily in 1912. Some of his first publications were of a purely mathematical nature, and until c. 1924 his main interest was the complex study of the extinction of starlight within the earth's atmosphere. He was also concerned with observational and theoretical studies of solar radiation, of variable stars, solar and lunar eclipses, and occultations. From 1925, he published discussions on the progress of the compilation of the Catalogo astrofotografico… di Catania as part of the international enterprise of mapping the sky. Bemporad wrote about the history of astronomy. In 1946, a commemorative volume of his life work was published. (Arthur Beer)