Ida Barney

Ida Barney
Born	(1886-11-06)November 6, 1886 New Haven,Connecticut, US
Died	March 7, 1982(1982-03-07)(aged 95) New Haven, Connecticut, US
Alma mater	Smith College (B.A.) Yale University (Ph.D.)
Known for	Astrometricmeasurements of 150,000 stars
Awards	Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy(1952)
Scientific career
Fields	Astronomy
Institutions	Rollins College Smith College Lake Erie College Yale University Observatory
Thesis	Line and surface integrals(1911)

Ida Barney(November 6, 1886 – March 7, 1982) was an Americanastronomer,best known for her 22 volumes ofastrometric measurementson 150,000 stars. She was educated atSmith CollegeandYale Universityand spent most of her career at theYale University Observatory.She was the 1952 recipient of theAnnie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy.

Early life

Barney was born on November 6, 1886, inNew Haven, Connecticut.Her mother was Ida Bushnell Barney and her father was Samuel Eben Barney. She was an avidbirderand the New Haven Bird Club President.After her retirement from Yale, she continued to live in New Haven,where she died on March 7, 1982,95 years old.

Education

In 1908, Barney was graduated fromSmith Collegewith aBachelor of Artsdegree. There, she was a member ofPhi Beta KappaandSigma Xi,national honor societies for students. Three years later, she received herPh.D.inmathematicsfromYale University.

Scientific career

Rollins College, ca.1909

From 1911–1912, just after receiving her Ph.D., Barney was a mathematics professor atRollins College.At the conclusion of that year, she moved to heralma matertoSmith College,where she was an instructor of mathematics. In 1917, she was hired as a professor atLake Erie College,where she stayed until 1919. In 1920, she returned to Smith College as an assistant professor. In 1922, theYale University Observatoryappointed Barney as a research assistant, a title she held until 1949, when she was promoted to research associate.The Observatory, like many other university observatories, was allocating significant resources to astronomy, thanks to the development of telescope-mounted cameras. At the beginning of her career in astronomy, Barney worked underFrank Schlesinger;she plotted the position of stars from photographic plates and worked on the calculations of their celestial coordinates from their positions on the plates.The work was tedious, which Schlesinger thought to be suitable for women incapable of theoretical research.Despite this influence, she developed several methods that increased both the accuracy and speed of astronomic measurements, including the use of a machine that automatically centered the photographic plates.

In 1941, when Schlesinger retired, Barney took over full supervision of the cataloguing. Under her direction, the measurements of the photographic plates were completed at the IBM Watson Scientific Laboratory using a new electronic device that advanced the reduction of eye strain and increased accuracy.Her life's work, completed over 23 years, contributed to theYale Observatory Zone Catalog,a series of star catalogs published by the Yale Observatory for 1939 to 1983, containing approximately 400,000 stars, and influenced theBright Star Catalogue.Her individual contribution to thesestar cataloguesrecorded the position,magnitude,andproper motionof approximately 150,000 stars. Due to its high accuracy, the catalogue is still used today in proper motion studies.She retired from academic life in 1955.She was succeeded byEllen Dorrit Hoffleit.

Woman of achievement

TheWomen's Centennial Congresswas organized byCarrie Chapman Catt,November 25–27, 1940, to celebrate a century of female progress. To demonstrate those advances, 100 "successful women" were invited to represent the respective fields of study in which they were working in 1940, but that would have been impossible for them in 1840. Barney was listed under "Science" withMargaret MeadandAnnie Jump Cannon,among others. The 100 women chosen were "all American, alive and doing jobs that would have been impossible for a woman to undertake in 1840."

Honors

While a research associate at the Yale University Observatory, in 1952, Barney was awarded the triennialAnnie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy,a prestigious award for women astronomers given by theAmerican Astronomical Society.

Asteroid5655 Barney,discovered byIngrid van Houten-Groeneveld,Cornelis Johannes van HoutenandTom GehrelsatPalomar Observatoryin 1973, was named in her honor.

Published works

• Barney, Ida;Schilt, Jan(1927). "Discussion of the proper motions in the equatorial Zone".Astronomical Journal.37:181.Bibcode:1927AJ.....37..181B.doi:10.1086/104785.
• Barney, Ida;Schilt, Jan(1930)."Analysis of the Yale proper motions in the zones between +50 degrees and +55 degrees and between +55 degrees and +60".Astronomical Journal.40:168.Bibcode:1930AJ.....40..168B.doi:10.1086/105000.
• Barney, Ida;Schlesinger, Frank(1938). "An effect of a star's color upon its apparent photographic position".Astronomical Journal.47:86.Bibcode:1938AJ.....47...86B.doi:10.1086/105478.
• Barney, Ida;Schlesinger, Frank(1939)."On the accuracy of the proper motions in the General Catalogue Albany".Astronomical Journal.48:51.Bibcode:1939AJ.....48...51B.doi:10.1086/105546.
• Barney, Ida;Schlesinger, Frank(1940)."New reductions of astrographic plates with the help of the Yale photographic Catalogues".Astronomical Journal.49:39.Bibcode:1940AJ.....49...39B.doi:10.1086/105625.

See also

• List of Minor Planets 5001–6000, #5655
• List of minor planets named after people
• Meanings of minor planet names: 5501–6000

References

Footnotes

Citations

References

• Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy,American Astronomical Society, 2012, archived fromthe originalon 29 January 2013,retrieved20 November2012
• "General Notes",Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific,65(383): 98–100, April 1953,Bibcode:1953PASP...65...98.,doi:10.1086/126550,S2CID250802966
• "(5655) Barney",Dictionary of Minor Planet Names,Springer,2007, p. 479,doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_5355,ISBN978-3-540-29925-7
• Hoffleit, E. Dorrit(June 1990),"Ida M. Barney, Ace Astrometrist"(PDF),STATUS: The Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy,American Astronomical Society,archived fromthe original(PDF)on 5 April 2016,retrieved17 November2012
• Milite, George A. (1999), Pamela Proffitt (ed.),"Ida Barney",Notable Women Scientists,Farmington Hills, Michigan:Gale Group, Inc.,p.27,ISBN978-0-7876-3900-6
• Ogilvie, Marilyn;Harvey, Joy(2000),Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science,New York:Routledge,ISBN978-0-415-92038-4
• Slight-Gibney, Nancy (1997), Barbara S. Shearer; Benjamin F. Shearer (eds.),"Ida Barney",Notable Women in the Physical Sciences: A Biographical Dictionary,Westport, Connecticut:Greenwood Press,pp.1–4,ISBN978-0-313-29303-0
• Smith, Horace A. (2009)."Schlesinger, Frank".In Hockey, Thomas (ed.).The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers.Springer.pp. 1024–1025.doi:10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_1236.ISBN978-0-387-31022-0.RetrievedAugust 18,2023.(subscription required)

Further reading

• "Bibliography: Ida Smith Barney".Women in Astronomy.Library of Congress.Retrieved18 November2012.
• Horch, Elliot (2007)."Hoffleit, Ellen Dorrit".In Hockey, Thomas (ed.).The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers.Springer.pp. 516–517.doi:10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_636.ISBN978-0-387-31022-0.RetrievedAugust 18,2023.(subscription required)
• Green, Judy;LaDuke, Jeanne(2008).Pioneering Women in American Mathematics — The Pre-1940 PhD's.History of Mathematics. Vol. 34 (1st ed.).American Mathematical Society,TheLondon Mathematical Society.ISBN978-0-8218-4376-5.Biography on p. 54–57 of theSupplementary MaterialatAMS