01:750:109 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8.3: Williamina Fleming, Annie Jump Cannon, Antonia Maury
Document Summary
Edward pickering interested in studying and classifying stellar spectra but very tedious and time consuming so hired assistants he called computers. They were basically women and women weren"t allowed to hold faculty positions so pickering"s project offered a rare opportunity for these women to continue their work in astronomy. One of the first computers was williamina fleming. Classified stellar spectra according to the strength of the spectral lines of hydrogen: Type b for slightly weaker hydrogen lines. Etc to type o for stars with the weakest hydrogen lines. As time went on, found that this classification scheme based solely on hydrogen lines was inadequate. With work of fleming and another computer, antonia maury, found that the spectral classes fell into a natural order-- but not alphabetical order determined from hydrogen lines alone. Found that some of the original classes overlapped others and could be eliminated.
