Annie S. D. Maunder notable work astronomy
Astronomical research
Work at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
In January 1890, Annie was told about a position at Greenwich that was available by her good friend Alice Everett. In response, Annie wrote many times to the Royal Observatory hoping to be considered for the position. Annie's father submitted a request for her to obtain the job, and a powerful promoter, Sir Robert Ball, wrote her a letter of recommendation. For a year, Annie worked as a mathematics mistress at the Ladies' High School on the island of Jersey until she was offered the position by the Chief Assistant, Herbert Hall Turner. In 1891, Annie began her work at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, serving as one of the "lady computers" assigned to the solar department. This was a special department set up in 1873 to photograph the sun. Annie was offered £4 a month which she regarded as being barely enough to live on, as a teacher she had made £8 a year and was provided housing.Annie worked under Walter Maunder on the Greenwich photoheliograph program. Her duties included using the Dallmeyer photo-heliograph to capture pictures of sunspots, find their location, and determine their properties. There, Annie assisted Walter Maunder, and she spent a great deal of time photographing the sun. She also tracked the movements of a great number of sunspots caused by the solar maximum of 1894. This included the giant sunspot of July 1892 which was caused by a magnetic storm resulting in the largest spot ever record at Greenwich at the time. In her first year at Greenwich (1891), the number of recorded observations in the solar department exceeded 7 times the average number of recordings for the past 35 years. While she was not credited for this, Walter Maunder nominated her for the Fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1892. In November 1894, she was made editor of the Journal of the British Astronomical Association (BAA) by her husband who was president at the time. She kept this position for 35 years.
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