Every Day Is Special: November 6 - Happy Birthday, Ida Barney!

November 6 - Happy Birthday, Ida Barney!

Posted on November 6, 2019

Here's some tedious work...Hmm...Who would stick with all this boring measurement and repetitive calculation?

Oh! I know! A woman!

The Yale University Observatory was, in the 1920s, being run by a man. (Of course!) His name was Frank Schlesinger.

With their new telescope-mounted cameras, the astronomers at Yale wanted to put efforts into measuring the exact positions and movements of stars - a branch of astronomy that is called astrometry. But Schlesinger worried that the

work would be monotonous. He decided that it was, however, the perfect kind of work for a woman - and he thought that women were not capable of theoretical work.

Enter today's famous birthday, born on this date in 1886, Ida Barney. This mathematics professor and avid birdwatcher had been hired by the observatory as a Research Assistant (later promoted to Research Associate). Schlesinger put her to the astrometry task...

...And by the end of her career, Barney had published 22 volumes of astrometric data, with measurements of 150,000 stars!

Not only that, Barney had created new methods for astrometry - methods that increased the speed and accuracy of star plotting and measurement. For example, she devised a machine that would automatically center photographic plates.

Not only that, Barney supervised others' astrometry work - the Yale catalogs include more than 400,000 stars! - and, once electronic devices were invented that could reduce eye strain and make astrometry even more accurate - directed the completion of the analysis project by the IBM Watson Scientific Laboratory.

The Yale catalog that she contributed so much to is so accurate, it's still used today!

Barney also won a well-respected award, the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy, and an asteroid was named for her!

By the way:

(1) Women are OF COURSE capable of theoretical work.

(I mean, Vera Rubin and Sandra Faber and Carolyn Porco and many others have proved this time and again!)

(2) Theoretical scientists need need need accurate data to come up with and test theories. So those who are responsible for gathering and calculating that data are at least as important as the theoreticians!