Margaret Harwood

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Margaret Harwood

Margaret Harwood (born March 19, 1885 in Littleton , Massachusetts , † February 6, 1979) was an American astronomer and the first director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory in Nantucket . She specialized in the field of photometry .

Life

Margaret Harwood's parents Herbert Joseph Harwood and Emelie Augusta Green had nine children. She attended Radcliffe College and graduated in 1907.

After graduating, she worked at the Harvard College Observatory . She has also taught in private schools in Boston , Cambridge and Dedham. In 1916 she was appointed director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory . Her field of work was photometry , in which she measured the variation in the light intensity of stars and asteroids .

She discovered the asteroid (886) Washingtonia four days before the official discoverer.

She was the first woman to be granted access to the Mount Wilson Observatory , which was then the largest observatory in the world.

Honors

Harwood was the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Oxford University . The asteroid 2542 PL, discovered in 1960, was named Harwood by its discoverers Cornelis Johannes van Houten , Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld and Tom Gehrels (7040) . In 1962 she received the Annie Jump Cannon Prize for Astronomy .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Thomas Clark: Littleton astronomer Margaret Harwood remembered for achievements . In: Wicked Local , GateHouse Media, April 10, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2014. 
  2. ↑ Jascin Leonardo: Nantucket's Daring Daughters: A Brief Look At Margaret Harwood . In: Nantucket Chronicle , December 16, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2014. 
  3. ^ Lutz Schmadel: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Volume 1 . Springer Publishing, August 5, 2003, ISBN 9783540002383 , p. 572 (accessed March 25, 2014).
  4. ^ Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy . American Astronomical Society . Retrieved September 10, 2012.

Further literature

  • Jane Lancaster: Making Time: Lillian Moller Gilbreth, A Life Beyond "Cheaper by the Dozen" (Retrieved September 10, 2012).
  • Sweeper in the Sky: The Life of Maria Mitchell, First Woman Astronomer in America . Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association, 1959.
  • A Scientific utpost: The First Half Century of the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association . Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association, 1968.

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Harwood, Margaret
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH March 19, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Littleton , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 1979