Unsung observatory worker was UK’s first professional female astronomer, experts say | Astronomy

For more than a century, astronomers assumed that it was simply “complex accounts” for Victorian men who have an exclusive use of Cambridge Observatory telescopes.

But researchers now say that Annie Walker – a Victorian woman who started working at the Observatory in 1879, when she was only fifteen – actually noticed thousands of stars.

The previously overlooked evidence indicated that Walker was the first British astronomy that was fully fully fully walked by the UK Observatory to draw stars.

But unlike the famous German astronomy, Caroline Hershel, who obtained a salary from King George III to help her brother William work as an astronomer a century ago, Walker’s work was neglected as an astronomical storm.

Astronomy Institute in Cambridge University,, Which includes its library at the Old Cambridge Observatory building, seeks to put this right.

In April, the institute was able to obtain an asteroid – Anniewalker – who was named after its former employee and now the organization launches a campaign to find a picture of Walker to comment at the institute and use it in articles to reaffirm its correct place in the history of science.

“She was a real pioneer for women in astronomy-she would have literally presented the position of thousands of stars,” said institute spokesman Mark Horn, who was looking for a picture of pedestrians in the local archives for “20 years”.

He appeals to the guardian readers in the United Kingdom and Australia, where Walker died in 1940, for assistance. “It would make a huge difference in her legacy to get her image.”

The daughter of Malik Mill, Walker was recruited from her internal school in Cambridge to carry out routine accounts of astronomers at the observatory. “It was very common in the nineteenth century – it was not customary for women to do this function. What is unusual is that, in an immediate case, she became trained to use telescopes. By the nineties of the nineteenth century, she was doing the bulk of the observation in the observation, while she was still working as a computer.”

Herne speculates that this has happened because the eyes of the elderly Walker coach, astronomer Andrew Graham, decreased over the past 21 years I worked there. “To monitor the stars, she was sitting on the lens during the night, pending their crossing through the field of the telescope, then recorded the high telescope and the time when the star passed exactly.”

These numbers will allow them to calculate a delicate position for each star, as part of an international project to draw the galaxy.

When Graham retired at the age of 88 in 1903, “” she is expected to get his job, but instead, a younger man – who trained on Annie for the same telescopes – was appointed in the role. “

Herne said this may have been due to a change in the leadership of the observatory. “John Ariksh Adams, who was supporting the education of women, was replaced by Mr. Robert Paul, the governor who did not really agree to working women, especially in astronomy. Walker’s profession was subjected to his bias.”

She resigned in 1903 and immigrated to New Ra in Melbourne, Australia, to be with her brother Frank Walker, a butcher. “I think she felt she hadn’t had much future in Cambridge.”

His living grandchildren could not present a picture of it. Horn said: “They were not aware of me and worked in astronomy, which is really sad.”

By working with an independent historian, Roger Hachins, the institute Walker described herself as an astronomer in the Australian election list in 1909, “but we contacted all the participants there, and we are sure that she had never worked at an observatory in Australia.

The evidence discovered by Hachins revealed that the Walker’s works that were monitoring the stars were eventually published in the twenties of the twentieth century and the “full credit” presented by the director of the Cambridge Observatory at the time, Sir Arthur Edengton.

But Hern believes that Walker may not know that her contributions to astronomy had been recognized during her life, and her status was neglected by the former coordinators in the history of the observatory. “She was the first professional woman to gain a living from astronomy,” Horne said. “But if you ask most astronomers today, they will not know her name.”