May 9, 2022
A system for stellar classification developed by Annie Jump Cannon was formally adopted by the International Astronomical Union on May 9, 1922.
She is recognised for her phenomenal work which required a sharp eye, an extraordinary memory and painstaking work sorting through photos of stellar spectra on glass plates.
She catalogued around 350000 stars and her system, with some modifications, is still used today.
Lord,
we give thanks for Annie Jump Cannon and others like her whose work sounds tedious and boring.
But with her passion for astronomy picked up from her mother Annie made an enormous contribution to science through her painstaking commitment.
We pray for all those whose work is often unseen yet makes a big difference to various aspects of life.
Amen
By Fr Pat O'Shea - Lower Hutt
Annie Jump Cannon. Her story and that of some of the other women known as the Harvard Computers is told in Dava Sobel’s book The Glass Universe
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