Charles Hugh Smiley (September 6, 1903 – July 26, 1977) was an American astronomer and academic, and the author of a column on astronomy, "Planets and Stars" (Providence Journal, 1938–1957).
"[2] Born in Camden, Missouri, he attended UCLA and UC Berkeley, where he earned a mathematics degree.
[1] He taught mathematics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1927-9) and worked at the Royal Greenwich Observatory as a Guggenheim Fellow (1929–30).
[1] He was director of Ladd Observatory and served as chairman of the Department of Astronomy from 1938 until his retirement.
[1] Smiley led expeditions to South America, Canada, Asia, and the US to study solar eclipses and observed the solar eclipse of July 20, 1963 from a U.S. Air Force F-104D Starfighter supersonic aircraft that was "racing the moon's shadow" at 1,300 mph (2,100 km/h) extending the duration of totality.