Williamina Paton Research Paper

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Essay 1 My topic in this essay is about a famous and inspiring woman astronomer who we wished to have witnessed. She had a rather ironical start to her astronomy career, being a housekeeper of her own employer who gave her the opportunity for a position at the Harvard College Observatory. Though, circumstances would be difficult for a woman of any era, her misfortune presented her opportunities that she would have never dreamed off. She could be stated as one of the encouragements for the women on this planet and also to the women who are seeking careers in astronomy. She is none other than Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming. Williamina Paton was born in Dundee, Scotland on May 15th, 1857, the daughter of Mary Walker Stevens and Robert Stevens, a distinguished craftsman. Nicknamed Mina by her friends…show more content…
Fleming discovered the Horsehead nebula on Harvard plate B2312, describing the bright nebula (later known as IC-434) as having "a semicircular indentation 5 minutes in diameter 30 minutes south of Zeta [Orionis]." William Pickering, who took the photograph, speculated that the spot was dark obscuring matter. All subsequent articles and books seem to deny Fleming and W. H. Pickering credit because the compiler of the first Index Catalogue, J. L. E. Dreyer[->5], eliminated Mrs. Fleming's name from the list of objects then discovered by Harvard, attributing them all instead merely to "Pickering". However, by the release of the second Index Catalogue by Dreyer in 1908, Mrs. Fleming and others at Harvard were famous enough to receive proper credit. Fleming was placed in charge of dozens of women hired to do mathematical classifications and edited the observatory's publications. In 1899, Fleming was given the title of Curator of Astronomical Photographs. She also received many honors and awards, including memberships in the Royal Astronomical Society and the Astronomical Society of Mexico. On May 21st, 1911, Fleming died of pneumonia in Boston,

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