The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-04-25
OUR FAIR ASTRONOMERS.
WOMEN WHO HAVE MADE \
SUCCESS AS OBSERVERS.
Miss Fleming of Harvard Discovers a
New Star--A California Girl in Paris
Observatory.

Miss Fleming, young lady assist
ant in the Astronomical observatory
at Harvard, says William T.. Curtis in
the Chicago Record, has recently dis
covered new star of the fifth magni-
tude i'm the constellation of Sagittari-
us-the Archer 1t was either invisi-
BILE for overlooked by everybody be-
fore. l believe this is the most inn
portant Astronomical discovery ever
made by woman, although Miss Ma
ria Mitchell, who was a professor at
Nassar college, contributed a great
deal to the worlds knowledge
Miss Fleming is employed to meas
ure compare and put together the
photographs of the heavens that have
been taken during the last twelve
years by a syndicate of observatories
in Europe, the United States, Russia,
Japan, India, Australia, the Argen-
tine Republic and Peru. The lead
ing astronomers entered into an
agreement by which they divided up
the work and each has been making
photographs of his share. When
they are completed they will be put
together for an international map of
the entire heavens Miss Fleming has
charge of this work at Cambridge.
and her sharp eyes recently picked
up new star in a photograph of the
constellation of Sagittarius that was
taken only last August. 1t is not
marked on any of the charts and does
not appear in any of the photographs
previously taken. but its position has
since been verified and the new heav-
emily being has been catalogued
a duty similar to that of Miss Flem-
ing has been intrusted to another
American girl by the astronomers of
France. Her name is Miss Dorothy
klumpke. She was born i'm Califor-
mia, and after graduating from the
Stanford university with two of her
sisters, who were also extremely ia
Tented, she took course in the uni
versity at Paris. One of her sisters
took a degree in law, while she took
doctors degree in astronomy and
mathematics-the only woman who
ever won so high an honor i'm scholar
ship at the Paris university. Her
graduating thesis was on "The Mathe-
NAUTICAL Theory of the Rings of Sat
urn which gave her so great a repu-
tatiOn that she was invited to take a
position as assistant i'm the national
observatory at Paris, where she has
been promoted until she is now chief
of the division in charge of the in
ternational Photographic chart of the
heavens.
There are several other women as
tronomers who promise to win repu-
tations. One is Miss Charlotte A.
Scott of Bryn Mawr college. Miss
Whitney at Nassar has also high
standing and Miss Barry Byrd has al
ready won an enviable reputation by
writing a Laboratory Manual of AS
tronmy." One of the chief computers
employed upon the Nautical almanac
at the naval observatory at Washing
ton is Mrs. Brown Davis. She has
been engaged upon this work for
more than ten years and has remark
able talent as a mathematician.
| asked Prof. Simon Newcomb of
Washington the other day if women
were accurate in the higher mathe-
MATES. Yes" he replied; they are
quite as accurate and exact and as
conscientious as men,"
Eighteen observatories undertook
the work of cataloguing and photo
graphing all the visible stars. Only
Peru, Brazil and the Argentine Re
public have failed to complete their
engagements. The map when finish
ed will show about 2O,OO0OOO stars.