The absorption features (click here) present in stellar spectra allow us to divide stars into several spectral types depending on the temperature of the star. The scheme in use today is the Harvard spectral classification scheme which was developed at Harvard college observatory in the late 1800s, and refined to its present incarnation by Annie Jump Cannon for publication in 1924.
I do believe Annie Jump Cannon needs her PhD. after her name permanently. She needs the name of the Harvard Spectral Classification renamed to carry her name. And she needs proper recognition by the scientific community in being among the first women to contribute her genius to science.
...When I was first contacted (click here) by the publisher about the book, I was embarrassed that I had never heard of Annie Jump Cannon. As a kid, my favorite show was Cosmos and I wanted to be an astronomer when I grew up. I not only read a lot of Carl Sagan, but was a huge fane of science fiction as well. How had I never heard of her?...
In a time (click here) when women rarely attended college, Annie Jump Cannon studied physics, mathematics, and astronomy, and in 1896 she was hired by Edward Charles Pickering at Harvard, as one of several women assigned to assist Pickering in the Henry Draper Catalog of Stellar Spectra. Cannon, however, found the system being used unworkable, and devised a different system, categorizing stars by letters of the alphabet. Now called the Harvard Spectral Classification Scheme, her methodology was adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922 as the official system for stellar spectra classification.
Father: Wilson Lee Cannon (shipbuilder, b. 28-Jan-1817, d. 9-Feb-1905)
Mother: Mary Elizabeth Jump Cannon (b. 7-Nov-1839, d. 22-Dec-1893)
Brother: Wilson Lee Cannon, Jr. (banker)
Brother: Robert Barrett Cannon
High School: Wilmington Conference Academy, Dover, DE
University: BA, Wellesley College (1884)
Scholar: Astronomy, Radcliffe College (184-86)
Teacher: Physics, Wellesley College (1894-96)
Scholar: Harvard College Observatory, Harvard University (1897-1911)
Administrator: Curator of Astronomical Photographs, Harvard University (1911-38)
Administrator: Astronomer, Harvard University (1938-40)
Henry Draper Medal 1931
American Astronomical Society Treasurer (1912-19)
American Philosophical Society
Risk Factors: Deafness
I take it her vision was well intact. It appears she lived to the age of 77.
Executive summary: Census-taker of the sky
Born: 11-Dec-1863
Birthplace: Dover, DE
Died: 13-Apr-1941
Location of death: Cambridge, MA
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, Lakeside Cemetery, Dover, DE
