Charlotte Moore Sitterly
| Charlotte Moore Sitterly | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 24, 1898 Ercildoun, Pennsylvania |
| Died | March 3, 1990 (aged 91) |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | astronomy |
| Alma mater | Princeton |
| Influences | Henry Norris Russell Bancroft W. Sitterly |
| Notable awards | Bruce Medal (1990) |
Charlotte Emma Moore Sitterly (September 24, 1898 – March 3, 1990) was an American astronomer. She won the 1990 Bruce Medal.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Life
Charlotte Moore was born in Ercildoun, Pennsylvania, a small village near Coatesville. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 1920 and went on to Princeton to assist Henry Norris Russell. During this time she worked at the Princeton University Observatory and the Mt. Wilson Observatory. While at Princeton, Moore's interest in astrophysics began to blossom. She worked at the Princeton University Observatory where she was accompanied by Henry Norris Russel. The two of them used spectroscopy to determine the wavelength where spectral lines appeared. She worked extensively on solar spectroscopy, analyzing the spectral lines of the Sun and thereby identifying the chemical elements in the Sun. She earned a Ph.D. in astronomy in 1931 from the University of California, Berkeley on a Lick Fellowship, and then returned to Princeton.[2]
During her second stay at Princeton, she met and married, on May 30, 1937, Bancroft W. Sitterly, who became a physics professor. She continued to publish journals under her maiden name because most of her recognition was under that name. She joined the then National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in 1945. [3] Her tables of atomic spectra and energy levels, published by NBS, have remained essential references in spectroscopy for decades.
Later in her life, it became possible to launch instruments on rockets and she extended her work to the ultraviolet spectral lines. She is known to being one of the only scientists who devoted her entire career to gaining precise numbers which gave assurance to people using her information.
[edit] Honors
Her Awards
- Annie J. Cannon Award (1937)
- William F. Meggers Award of the Optical Society of America (1972)
- Bruce Medal (1990)
Named after her
[edit] Works
- The Masses of the Stars (with Henry Norris Russell), 1940,
- Atomic Energy Levels as Derived from the Analyses of Optical Spectra, 1958
- The Solar Spectrum (with Harold D. Babcock), 1947,
[edit] References
- ^ "Bruce Medal: Charlotte Emma Moore Sitterly". Astronomical Society of the Pacific. http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/BruceMedalists/Sitterly/index.html. Retrieved February 02, 2012.
- ^ "Charlotte E. Moore". NNDB. http://www.nndb.com/people/810/000173291/. Retrieved February 02, 2012.
- ^ Walter Sullivan (March 08, 1990). "Charlotte Sitterly, 91; Devoted Career to Sunlight Studies". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/08/obituaries/charlotte-sitterly-91-devoted-career-to-sunlight-studies.html.
[edit] External links
- QJRAS Obituary
- BAAS Obituary
- Bibliography from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- Dr. Sitterly Historical Marker database HMdb
- "Oral History Transcript — Dr. Charlotte Moore Sitterly", American Institute of Physics.
