Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-11-30
DISCIPLES OF HYPATlA
MANY WOMEN ARE ENGAGED IN As
TRoNOMICAL OBSERVATIONS.
American Female DevOtees of Stellar
Science Who Classify
and Compute.

From the New York Tribune.
The announcement made a few days ago
that Miss Anna Winlock of the Harvard
observatory staff had collaborated with
Simon Newcomb In computing the orbit OF
a newly found asteroid Is q reminder or
the large share which the fair sex has had
in astronomical work from Hypatia's day
down to the present time. Although the
woman whom Kingsley takes as the her
oine of one Of his novels taught philosophy
as well as science. she especially excelled
in mathematics, and Is known to have en-
gagged In astronomical calculations
Among the first devotees of stellar science
after the revival Of civilization in Europe,
four or five centuries ago. were Sophia
Brahe u556-1643), Maria Cunitz Q61O-166A)
and Elizabeth, second wife Of Hevelius. OF
the first very little Is known beyond the
circumstance that she was sister OF the
great astronomer, Tycho Brahe. Cunltz'
although she married an amateur astron-
omer and derived some inspiration from
him, really exhibited much original maine
NAUTICAL talent. She computed tables, Wnieh
were simplification of Kepler's, but mas
much as she made no use OF logar1tnms net
task was more difficult than it would have
been otherwise. Hevelius, wealthy anna
teur. residing in Silesia, undertook series
of observations for new star catalogue.
His wife assisted him, and published some
Of his results after his death. She named
a constellation the Shield of Sobieski,"
after king Of Poland.
Three more modern, IL not more consplc-
uous, figures in the realm Of astronomy are
Mary Somerville, Caroline Herschel ana
Maria Mitchell. Mary Somerviue, whose
maiden name was Fairfax, and who was
related to George washington mother' was
born in Scotland near the close of the year
1870. She was almost as versatile as Hy-
patia. Her most famous work, perhaps,
was an adaptation Of La Places Celestial
1 -. nl,ay,c nfo
number of students. 1t was from the great
Frenchman she received the compliment
that she was the only woman VINO ever
| understood him. John Couch Adams, one
of the discoveries of the planet Neptune,
says that he derived the hint which led to
his computations from reading Mary SOM
erville's Connection Of the Physical Sci
ences."
Caroline Herschel (175O-1S4s) discovered
no less than seven comets and published
several catalogues of stars and nebuiae.
Maria Mitchell was native Of Nantucket,
and while yet young woman became IL
brarian of the local athenaeum. With
small telescope, which had belonged to her
| father, she scrutinized the skies for years
| In 1S45 she discovered comet That
| event led to many recognitions Of her skill
| from foreign as well as American sources
| The King of Denmark sent her a medal.
| Her services as a computer were sought at
| the Nautical Almanac Office in Washing
ton, and when she went abroad she received
| attention from Mary Somerville, George
Eliot and other women famous for INTEL
| lectual endowments. In 1865 she became
professor OF astronomy In Vassar College, q
post which she occupied until age rendered
resignation necessary. She died in 1889.
| The British Astronomical Association is
maue up largely Of amateurs. and it's MEM
| bership now includes number of women.
| The observations made by some Of the lat
| ter often approach in value those Of profess
| sional astronomers. One of the best photo
| graphs of the total eclipse of the sun taken
i In India two Or three years ago was Sc
cured by Mrs. E. Walter Maunder. an anna
| teur. The most prominent women in the
| ranks of English astronomers today, how
| ever, are Lady Higgins and Miss Agnes
| M. Clarke. The former is the wife of the
| venerable spectroscopist, Sir William Hug
| gins, and in all published reports Of his re-
| searches he shares the credit with Lady
| Higgins. Miss Clarke, native of Ireland,
and now nearly sixty years old, was en-
gagged in observational work at the Cape of
| Goou Hope observatory in 1888. But she is
| chiefly known a writer, and a charming
| writer. too. She has a wonderful faculty
Of digesting the somewhat abstruse and
| technical reports of original investigators
| and putting their pith in popular form.
| A considerable number Of American wo-
men have of late been led into observational
| with astronomy. One Of them, Dorothea
| Klumpke, has been lent to France for more
| than a dozen years. She was born in Cali
| fornia, and has two sisters, one OF whom
excels in art and the other in the practice
of medicine. Miss Klumpke has been con-
nected with the observatory of Paris in one
capacity or another since 1887 The thesis
wA.ch won her a doctorate was on the rings
of Saturn. She Is now at the head of bu-
| reau for measuring star plates for the new
International chart of the heavens, and has
five assistants Of her own sex.