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ON THE COVERStarGazi ngStarsBy Len DavisCITIZEN STAFF WRITERThree women astronomers at the University of Arizona are covering three different areas of outer space, from the moon 240,000 miles from earth.The moon expert is Miss Barbara M. Midcllehurst of the lunar and planetary laboratory, who had to “push hard — very hard — to get into astronomy.”During her early math courses at Cambridge University — where she received her B. A. in 1936 and M. A. in 1947 — Miss Middlehurst was told there was no future in astronomy for anyone — particularly a woman.This did not deter her.She plodded through a period of discouragement, teaching mathematics in various British schools, beginning in 1937.“All the while — about 10 years — I yearned to become an astronomer.”Her big break came in 1948 when she met Sir Harold and Lady Jeffreys. He was professor of astronomy at Cambridge and is author of the classic, “The Earth.” The Jeffreys invited Miss Middlehurst to their home as a house guest. They went away and she remained in their Cambridge home “in perfect peace for a whole month,” surrounded by books on astronomy. During this time and later she worked with Professor Roderick Redman, director of Cambridge Observatory.For more than two years she did research for Redman, including many hours with the big telescope at Cambridge. In 1951 she was named associate professor of astronomy at St. Andrews University in Fife, Scotland. She took a leave of absence from St. Andrews in 1953 andcame to the United States under a Fulbright fellowship and travel grant at the University of Indiana, where she was a research associate.A year later she went back to St. Andrews and returned to the United Stattes in 1959 as a research associate at Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago. In 1960 she joined the lunar and planetary laboratory staff at the University of Arizona, as a research associate.Since coming to Tucson Miss Middlehurst has established herself as a major authority on astronomy, with particular emphasis on lunar events (the transient pheno-mena involving color changes, bright spots on the dark side and obscurations).She began collecting data about the lunar surface in 1964 and presently is working on a chronological catalogue of lunar events (540 of them), in collaboration with three of her colleagues. One of her theories is that the moon is not entirely inert. “I believe quite conclusively,” she said, “that there is considerably outgassing — or volcanic eruption — on the moon’s surface.”Astronomer Middlehurst said she spends little time now telescope viewing, or working with scientific measuring instruments, but hopes “to return to observing,” When she is not in her office doing research and writing papers, books and magazine articles, she is out in the field giving and attending lectures.Asked if she ever takes a vacation, she replied: “Never!”Dr. Elizabeth Roemer, associate professor of astronomy, is unique among her colleagues in that an asteroid,or minor planet, was named for her, in 1964. (Asteroids are the thousands of small bodies which revolve around the sun, mainly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The majority are less than 50 miles in diameter.)Roemer a 1657 was named by its discoverer, Paul Wild of the Berne Observatory in Switzerland, because of Dr. Roemer’s significant observations of the asteroid, first noted in 1961.She got into astronomy “because of an incompetent science teacher in high school. “I knew instinctively I was being taught something wrong — and 1 vowed to do something about it.”She joined a group of astronomers in Oakland, Cal., three years before graduating from high school in 1946. It was the beginning of a successful career that today spans more than 20 years.From 1944 to 1948, in Alameda, she counted sunspots for the Department of Terres-tial Magnetism at Carnegie Institute in Washington, D. C., using a small refractor telescope in her backyard and graduating to a larger one on the campus — at the University of California (where she received a B. A. in 1950 and PhD. in 1955).While studying at Berkeley she taught astronomy one night a week, as part of an adult extension course held at the Chabot Observatory in Oakland.In 1955 and 1956 she was a research astronomer at the University of California, working on comets at Berkeley and Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, Cal. During 1956 she served as a research associate at the University of Chicago, assigned to the Yerkes Observatory at WilliamsBay, Wise, and McDonald Observatory at Fort Davis, Texas.The work she did led to her being named, in 1957, astronomer at the U. S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff. Here she developed her forte — comets and minor planets.After a nine-year tour of duty at Flagstaff, which included nine months as acting station director, she joined the University of Arizona faculty in 1966, as an associate professor.Astronomer Roemer’s present work is concentrated in an area 100 million to 500 million miles from earth. It is in this region of astronomy and astrophysics that she observes and establishes the positions, motions and physical characteristics of comets, minor planets and satellites and determines how they react tointerplanetray env torment.She is credited with the recovery — or first observation — of 37 periodic comets and the minor planet, Roemer a, named in recognition of her work.Perhaps one of her outstanding accomplishments is reflected in the fact that she is the only woman on the International Astronomical Union’s five-man committee on orbits and ephemerides of comets. The group is scheduled to meet this summer in Prague at the lAU’s 13th general assembly. Astronomer Roemer will preside at the session on comets.She spends three or four nights a month on-telescope and devotes half her time to work at the lunar lab and half to work at Steward Observatory. Her average work week covers teaching, travel, administrative functions and scientific research.The “way-out” member of the triumverate, Dr. Beverly T. Lynds, associate professor of astronomy, seeks to learn the precise role that interstellar dust plays in the formation and evolution of galaxies (the Milky Way) — at distances one million billion miles from earth.Astronomer Lyons enjoys one other distinction from her two colleagues — she is married, to another astronomer (Dr. Roger Lynds on the staff at Kitt Peak Observatory).She first became interested in astronomy as a Girl Scout in grade school. Throughout most of her college days, Mrs. Lyons found that she usually was the only girl in astronomy classes. She received her B. S. degree in 1949 at Centenary College, Shreveport, La., did work in physics at Tulane and got her PhD. at the University of California at Berkeley in 1955.It was at Berkeley that she met her husband. They were married the year before they both received their doctorates. After that she collobo-rated with Dr. Otto Struve on a textbook of elementary astronomy, then taught for a year in the department of astronomy at Berkeley. Struve was head of the department and director of the Leuschner Observatory at Berkeley.In 1958 the Lynds went to Victoria, B. C., where her husband worked at Dominion Astrophysical Observatory.tory.“I had a year off,” she said, “which I spent finishing the book on astronomy and getting it published. I also gave two public lectures on astronomy.”The Lynds left Victoria in 1960 and went to Greenbank, W. Va., where she joined thePAGE 12.*-v .\w.*•• *.*.•. V.'. *. lt;*.V- - . •. W. • Vav..*• v•mmmmRiiSmrnmm.V.^-V.V.V •CitizenPhotosHemmerGrasbergerstaff of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory as a researcher and librarian. “I had the pleasure of spending more than $50,000 on books,” she remarked.Fro m Greenbank, the Lynds came to Tucson and the University of Arizona, in 1962. She became assistant professor of astronomy that year and, in 1966, was promoted to associate professor. She spends approximately 12 hours a night, seven nights a month on-telescope and hopes “to do more when we get the new SO-incher.” Because of family commitments — the Lynds have a nine-year-old daughter, Susan — she works only six hours a day, teaching interstellar matter and doing general research in astronomy.Whejn asked if she had any hobbies or collected anything, she replied:“I have a husband and daughter who collect just about everything imaginable; there’s no room for me to collect anything.”The Lynds, however, will be able to enjoy one activity together as a family. They are getting, within the next week or so, a 28 foot trimaran (three hulls) in which they plan to sail around San Diego this summer. It will be moored at Guaymas.All three faculty astronomers mentioned another woman astronomer in Tucson. She is the wife of Dr. Bart J. Bok, head of the university’s astronomy department and director of Steward Observatory.Mrs. Bok perhaps is best known for her work, in collaboration with her husband, on studies of the Milky Way. Bok’s widely respected book, “The Milky Way,” was written with his wife, Pricilla.ABOVE: University of Arizona astronomers Dr. Beverly Lynds, Dr. Elizabeth Roemer and Miss Barbara Middlehurst are no strangers to the big telescope a1 Steward Observatory. OPPOSITE: Dr. Lynds makes some adjustments on the telescope. ON THE COVER: Steward Observatory on the University of Arizona campus. The above photo is by John Hemmer; opposite page and on thecover by Art Grasberger.PAGE 13
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Tucson Daily Citizen
Tucson, Arizona, US
Sat, Jul 29, 1967
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