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Williamina Fleming began as a maid in the home of the director of Harvard College Observatory and rose to curator of its astronomical photographs. She classified more than 10,000 stars and, in 1888, spotted the Horsehead Nebula on a glass photographic plate.

Historical account — Harvard College Observatory plate archives

ScienceHistory

The story behind the card

Fleming was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1857 and moved to Boston. Left by her husband with a child to raise, she worked as a maid for Edward Pickering, the observatory's director, who in 1881 hired her as one of the women 'computers' who analysed its photographs of the sky. She devised much of an early system for sorting stars by their spectra, the pattern of colours in their light, and did most of the classifying for the 1890 Draper Catalogue. The Horsehead is a dark cloud of dust that shows up because it blocks light from glowing gas behind it. An early catalogue credited its discovery to Pickering; Fleming received proper credit only later.

Türkçe oku
Williamina Fleming, Harvard Gözlemevi müdürünün evinde hizmetçi olarak işe başladı; zamanla gözlemevinin gökyüzü fotoğraflarından sorumlu küratörü oldu. On binden fazla yıldızı sınıflandırdı; 1888'de de cam bir fotoğraf plakasında Atbaşı Bulutsusu'nu fark etti.

Fleming 1857'de İskoçya'nın Dundee kentinde doğdu ve Boston'a göç etti. Kocası onu terk edince bir çocuğu büyütmek için çalışmak zorunda kaldı ve gözlemevinin müdürü Edward Pickering'in evinde hizmetçi olarak işe girdi. Pickering 1881'de onu, gözlemevinin gökyüzü fotoğraflarını inceleyen ve “hesaplayıcı” diye anılan kadın çalışanların arasına aldı. Fleming, yıldızları tayflarına, yani ışıklarındaki renk dizilimine göre sınıflandıran ilk sistemlerden birinin büyük bölümünü geliştirdi ve 1890'da yayımlanan Draper Kataloğu'ndaki sınıflandırmaların çoğunu yaptı. Atbaşı, arkasındaki parlak gazın ışığını kestiği için görünen koyu bir toz bulutudur. İlk kataloglardan biri bu keşfi Pickering'e mal etti; Fleming'in hakkı ancak sonradan teslim edildi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Williamina Fleming
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