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Institutions. Harvard College Observatory. Signature. Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming (15 May 1857 – 21 May 1911) was a Scottish astronomer. She was a single mother hired by the director of the Harvard College Observatory to help in the photographic classification of stellar spectra. She helped develop a common designation system for stars ...
Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming (born May 15, 1857, Dundee, Tayside [now in Dundee], Scotland—died May 21, 1911, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.) was an American astronomer who pioneered in the classification of stellar spectra. Mina Stevens was educated in public schools and from age 14 was a teacher as well as student.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Williamina Fleming was an astronomer who studied and mapped over 10,000 stars. Who was she? Williamina was born in Dundee on 15th May 1857. She left school at 14 and became a teacher. ...
As 21- year-old Williamina Paton Fleming steamed across the Atlantic toward Boston in November 1878, she had no idea how brightly the stars overhead would shine in her future. One of nine children of a Scottish craftsman and his wife, she already knew the cold reality of family survival. Her father had died when she was seven; at 14, she had ...
Williamina Fleming received considerable recognition for her work and became the leading female astronomer of her day. She was made an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society of London in 1906, and was presented with a medal by the Astronomical Society of Mexico. There is a memorial plaque in Dundee commemorating Williamina's ...
Williamina Fleming discovered 10 novae, more than 200 variable stars, 160 stars of other types, and 59 nebulae, including the Horsehead Nebula — a dark cluster of gas and interstellar dust in the constellation of Orion. Williamina and her husband emigrated from Dundee to the USA in 1878, but shortly afterwards she was left as a single parent.
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May 14, 2018 · Williamina Fleming. The first of the famous women astronomers at the Harvard College Observatory, Williamina Fleming (1857-1911) helped to revolutionize astronomy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She discovered ten novae, or exploding stars, and more than 200 variable stars. She also developed a new star classification system.
