Annie Jump Cannon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Annie Jump Cannon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Annie Jump Cannon (December 11, 1863 - April 13, 1941) was an American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification. With Edward C. Pickering, she is credited with the creation of the Harvard Classification Scheme, which was the first serious attempt to organize and classify stars based on their temperatures.

Annie Jump Cannon was born on December 11, 1863, in Dover, Delaware. She was the eldest of three daughters born to Wilson Cannon, a Delaware shipbuilder and state senator, and his second wife, Mary Jump.^[2] Cannon's mother was the first person to teach her the constellations and encouraged her to become whatever she wanted, suggesting for her to pursue studies in mathematics, chemistry, and biology at Wellesley College.^[3] Cannon took her mother's advice and pursued her love of astronomy; in 1892 she traveled to Europe to take photographs of the solar eclipse with her Blair Box Camera. Soon afterwards, Cannon was stricken with scarlet fever that rendered her almost completely deaf.^[4] This hearing loss made it difficult for Cannon to socialize. As a result, she immersed herself in work and never married or had children.^[5]