Annie Maunder

Born on 14 April 1868 in Northern Ireland, astronomer Annie Maunder was a leading solar scientist and eclipse photographer at a time when few women pursued careers, particularly in the sciences. She was educated at Girton College, Cambridge, where she passed the degree examinations in 1889 with honors and received top place in mathematics; however, she was not awarded a degree because women were ineligible. In 1891 she took a job as a computer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. She learned to use a telescope and worked as part of a team studying sunspots and magnetic storms. In 1895 she was forced to resign her position after marrying the leader of the solar department, Walter Maunder. (Married women were banned from working in public service.) Nevertheless, Annie continued to conduct research with her husband, with whom she traveled to India and elsewhere, studying solar eclipses. She designed a short-focus camera specifically for photographing the Sun’s corona. In 1908 Annie published the book The Heavens and Their Story with her husband as coauthor, and in 1916 she became one of the first woman fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society. She and her husband published the famous butterfly diagram that illustrates the 11-year solar cycle based on sunspot coverage. Their research also led them to what came to be called the Maunder minimum, a period of 70 years (1645–1715) during which there was minimal sunspot activity, and which Annie linked with climate on Earth. (Photo credit: National Portrait Gallery, London, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 )

Date in History: 14 April 1868