1. Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Maury was an American astronomer who was the first to detect and calculate the orbit of a spectroscopic binary.
20 Facts About Antonia Maury
1. 2.
Antonia Maury published an important early catalog of stellar spectra using her own system of stellar classification, which was later adopted by the International Astronomical Union.
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Antonia Maury spent many years studying the binary star Beta Lyrae.
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Antonia Maury was awarded the Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy in 1943.
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Caetana de Paiva Pereira Antonia Maury was born in Cold Spring, New York, on March 21,1866.
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Antonia Maury attended Vassar College, graduating in 1887 with honors in physics, astronomy, and philosophy.
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Antonia Maury was one of seven graduates chosen to give an addresses at her commencement.
8.
Antonia Maury's salary was 25 cents, half the amount paid to men at that time.
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Antonia Maury was asked to determine its orbit, which she did using periodic doubling of some of the lines in its spectrum.
10.
In 1888, Antonia Maury was assigned to observe stellar spectra of bright stars in the northern celestial hemisphere and catalog them.
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Antonia Maury found their classification system inadequate and developed her own.
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In 1891 Antonia Maury left the observatory and started teaching in the Gilman School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Antonia Maury returned in 1893 and 1895 and published her observations of stellar spectra in an important catalogue of classifications in 1897.
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In 1918, Antonia Maury returned to Harvard College Observatory as an adjunct professor.
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Antonia Maury stayed in the observatory until her retirement in 1948.
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Antonia Maury's work summarizing many years of research on the spectroscopic analysis of the binary star Beta Lyrae was published in 1933.
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Antonia Maury was a member of the American Astronomical Society and the Royal Astronomical Society.
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Antonia Maury belonged to the National Audubon Society and enjoyed birdwatching.
19.
Antonia Maury fought to save western Sequoia trees from being felled during wartime.
20.
Antonia Maury died on January 8,1952, in Dobbs Ferry, New York.