Henry Norris Russell was born on October 25, 1877, in Oyster Bay, New York. He received the majority of his education at Princeton. He graduated in 1897 with the highest standing of a Princeton student ever. During his time he was considered the best American astronomer, and his discoveries and awards exemplified that thought.
"A man of overflowing energy, never sparing himself in his own work or in assisting the researches of others, he was the most eminent and versatile theoretical astrophysicist in the United States if not in the world." was used to describe Russell on an obituary by Colonel Stratton.
Some of his most amazing contributions were the color magnitude diagram, eclipsing binary theory and calculations, spectrum analysis, discovering the mass of stars, and the popularization of astronomy at a high level. But, Russell also made great contributions to solar and stellar composition and constitution, the origin of the planets and comets, characteristics of planetary atmospheres, the contacts of religion of science, and consulting on all astronomical and spectroscopic problems. The man wrote over 200 technical papers, and his contributions were all around simply amazing to everything studied nowadays. Colonel Stratton was right in saying that Russell was a man of unequaled versatility.
Working apart from Ejnar Hertzsprung, Russell demonstrated the relationship between types of stars and their absolute magnitude. He then collaborated with Hertzsprung to create the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagrams. This H-R diagram mainly traced the placing of the main sequence stars, giants and dwarfs.
Working with Frederick Saunders, he developed Russell-Saunders coupling which is also known as LS coupling. This is not nearly astronomical, but shows the true range of his studies, and the powers of ten. Russell was an great man and astronomer and without his contributions the field of astronomy wouldn't be anywhere on the map.
