nPostednon December 11, 2014
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Asna young adult, Annie Jump Cannon (who was born on this date in 1863)nwas stricken with scarlet fever. She recovered, but she had lostnalmost all of her hearing.
Asna young adult, Annie Jump Cannon (who was born on this date in 1863)nwas stricken with scarlet fever. She recovered, but she had lostnalmost all of her hearing.n
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nCannonnwas almost entirely deaf!
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nLuckilynfor Cannon, her mother had raised her with a love of learning and hadnalways encouraged her to follow her dreams. Cannon had taken math,nchemistry, and biology courses at Wellesley College but had ended upnpursuing her biggest love: astronomy. And she had graduated fromnWellesley with a degree in physics…
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nBeforenher illness, Cannon had traveled from America (where she was born andnraised) to Europe to photograph a solar eclipse. After recoveringnfrom her illness, Cannon asked one of her favorite professors, SarahnFrances Whiting, for help getting a job in astronomy. Whiting wasnable to arrange for Cannon to teach and take graduate-level coursesnat the college – which is probably quite tough to do whennyou’re deaf!
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Atnthe time, almost all colleges were separated into women’s collegesnand all the other colleges (which enrolled only men). Cannon enrollednat Radcliffe, a women’s college founded near Harvard College (todaynone of the best universities in the world), so she could gain accessnto a better telescope. Soon Harvard professor Edward C. Pickeringnhired Cannon as his assistant at the Harvard College Observatory. Andnso she became a member of “Pickering’s Women,” a group of womennworking together with Pickering to complete a star catalog.
Atnthe time, almost all colleges were separated into women’s collegesnand all the other colleges (which enrolled only men). Cannon enrollednat Radcliffe, a women’s college founded near Harvard College (todaynone of the best universities in the world), so she could gain accessnto a better telescope. Soon Harvard professor Edward C. Pickeringnhired Cannon as his assistant at the Harvard College Observatory. Andnso she became a member of “Pickering’s Women,” a group of womennworking together with Pickering to complete a star catalog.n
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nCannonnhad already written a paper about spectroscopy, the study of visiblenlight spread into the rainbow-colored spectrum – which is anothernway of saying that the light is spread out according to itsnwavelength. (Red light has a longer wavelength than violet light.) Sonwhen Pickering decided to obtain the optical spectra of as many starsnin the catalog as possible, and to classify the stars by spectra, shenwas in a great position to help the group do so.
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Actually,nseveral of the women working on the classification project disagreednabout how the stars should be classified. Cannon created a compromisenby coming up with system that was fairly simple but complex enough tonbe useful, with stars divided up into spectral classes O, B, A, F, G,nK, and M. She also came up with the mnemonic “Oh, Be A Fine Girl,nKiss Me!” as a way to remember the classes.
Actually,nseveral of the women working on the classification project disagreednabout how the stars should be classified. Cannon created a compromisenby coming up with system that was fairly simple but complex enough tonbe useful, with stars divided up into spectral classes O, B, A, F, G,nK, and M. She also came up with the mnemonic “Oh, Be A Fine Girl,nKiss Me!” as a way to remember the classes.n
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nCannonnpublished her first catalog of stellar spectra in 1901. By 1922, thenInternational Astronomical Union passed a resolution to adopt hernclassification system.
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nAndnCannon is remembered today as having classified more stars in hernlifetime than any other person, male or female. She classified aroundn500,000 stars! (That’s half a million!) Also, she discovered 300nvariable stars, five novas, and one spectroscopic binary.
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nAlsonon this date:
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nInternationalnMountain Day
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nPhysicistnMax Born’s birthday
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nProclamationnof the Republic Day in Burkina Faso
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nAnniversarynof the first recorded sighting of the Aurora Borealis in America
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest pages on:
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nDecembern holidays
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nDecembern birthdays
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- Historicaln anniversaries in December
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nJanuaryn holidays
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nJanuaryn birthdays
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