In 1849, Rutherfurd abandoned his study of law to dedicate his leisure to science, particularly astronomy. He performed pioneering work in spectral analysis, and experimented with celestial photography. He invented instruments for his studies, including the micrometer for measuring photographs, a machine for producing improved ruled diffraction gratings, and the first telescope designed specifically for astrophotography. Using his instrumentation, Rutherfurd produced a quality collection of photographs of the Sun, Moon, and planets, as well as star clusters and stars down to the fifth magnitude. In 1862, he began making spectroscopic studies using his new diffraction grating. He noticed distinct categories of spectral classes of stars, which Angelo Secchi expanded upon in 1867 to list a set of four stellar classes. Rutherfurd served as a trustee of the Columbia University from 1858 until 1884, and donated his photographs to that institution. In 1873, then President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Rutherfurd one of the scientific commission to attend the Vienna Exposition, however, he declined the honor due to previous business engagements in the United States. In 1884, he was named by President Chester A. Arthur as one of the delegates to the International Meridian Conference which met in Washington in October, 1885. He was one of the original members of the National Academy of Sciences created in 1863, and was an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Personal life
On July 22, 1841, he married Margaret Stuyvesant Chanler, the daughter of the Rev. Dr. John White Chanler, an Episcopalian clergyman, and Elizabeth Shirreff Winthrop. Margaret's mother was the sister of John Winthrop Chanler, a U.S. Representative, and a 2x great-granddaughter of Wait Winthrop and Joseph Dudley, both prominent colonial American figures. She was also the niece, and adopted daughter, of Helena Stuyvesant and Peter Gerard Stuyvesant, the 2x great-grandson of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Director-General of New Netherland before it became New York, Together, they were the parents of:
Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, who was married to Mary Rutherfurd Pierrepont. a granddaughter of Peter Augustus Jay. After her death, he married Countess Mathilde Elizabeth Loewenguth de Wassanaer the widow of a Dutch Count.
In 1887, his health began to fail. Rutherfurd died on May 30, 1892 at his home, Tranquility, New Jersey.
Awards and honors
, the greatest popularizer of astronomy in the nineteenth century, called Rutherfurd "the greatest lunar photographer of the age."
The lunar crater Rutherfurd is named after him.
A professorship in Columbia University's astronomy department is named in his honor, as is the astronomical observatory atop Columbia's famed Pupin Hall.
