Adelaide Ames

Adelaide Ames (born June 3, 1900 , † June 26, 1932 in Squam Lake , New Hampshire ) was an American astronomer. During her tenure at the Observatory in Harvard , they worked together with Harlow Shapley the Shapley-Ames Catalog , the galaxies beyond the size class 13.2 lists and in 1932 appeared after her death. Ames was a member of the American Astronomical Society .

Life

Adelaide Ames father was TL Ames, who served as a Colonel in the US Army .

She attended Vassar College until 1922 and then studied at Radcliffe College , where she graduated in 1924 with a Master of Arts . Originally she had planned to become a journalist, but according to her own statements she could not find a job in the field ("But a job in Astronomy was offered to me and none in newspaper work.")

While still a student, she received an assistant position at Harvard College Observatory in 1923 , which she held until her death. The focus of her work was the cataloging of galaxies in the area of ​​the constellations Coma and Virgo ; the catalog, completed in 1931, comprised almost 2,800 objects. This work earned her membership in the International Committee for Nebulae.

On June 3, 1932, while on vacation at Squam Lake, Ames went on a boat tour with a friend. The canoe capsized and she drowned. Her body was found on July 5th after a ten day search.

literature

• Research Astronomer Lost by Drowning. In: Popular astronomy , Vol. 40, August / September 1932, pp. 448-449. ( online )
• Peter Broughton: A Photograph of Nine Young Women Astronomers at Harvard College Observatory in 1928. In: The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada . Vol. 28 (6), December 2002, pp. 255-258. ( online )
• Barbara L. Welther: Adelaide Ames and the Shapley-Ames Catalog . (Abstract) In: Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. Vol. 22, 1990, p. 841. ( online )

Web links

• Writings by A. Ames in the Astrophysics Data System

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Research Astronomer Lost by Drowning p. 449.