Answer: The astronomer who, at the turn of the century, measured the spectra of hundreds of thousands of stars (leaving a catalog that astronomers used for the rest of the century) was: Annie Jump Cannon.
Annie Jump Cannon was born on 11th December 1863 in Dover, Delaware. She was an american astronomer whose work contributes in the expansion of current stellar classification. She made the first accurate attempt to organize and classify stars on the basis of their temperature and spectral form. She suffered from hearing loss during her childhood. She was almost deaf during her career. She was member of National women's party and by her nature, she was a extreme suffragist.
Annie Jump was the eldest of the three daughters of Wilson Cannon (shipbuilder and state senator) and Mary Jump (second wife of Wilson Cannon). It was Annie's mother who encouraged her to peruse her education and career in her interests. She suggested her to study in Wellesley college, perusing in mathematics, biology and chemistry. Cannon's mother teaching like household economics, helped her to organize her research later on.
She took her early education and was brilliant student of mathematics, then went to Wellesley College of Massachusetts in 1880 and studied physics and astronomy, later she went to work at Harvard Observatory.
Astronomer Annie Jump was the pioneer, who develop a simple spectral classification system. She categorized nearly 400,000 stars in total. She for the very first time found a double star, three hundred variable stars and 5 novas. She worked as astronomer for more then forty years till 1940, until she got retired. During her career she also work as suffragist, and helped many women to attain respect and reputation in scientific society. She was a hard working woman with a calm nature who build the ways for upcoming women in the field of scientific research and astronomy.
Annie Jump Canon died on 13th April, 1941 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. she died at the age of 72. She was hospitalized prior to her death due extreme illness. After her death American Astronomical Society announce an award named after her (The Annie Jump Cannon Award), yearly to those female astronomers, who worked remarkably in astronomy.
