Dorrit Hoffleit

Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit ( born March 12, 1907 in Florence (Alabama ); † 9 April 2007) was an American astronomer.

Hoffleit was the daughter of German immigrants. She grew up in Pennsylvania and studied at Radcliffe College Mathematics with a bachelor's degree 1928. Thereafter, she was a research associate in astronomy at Harvard University (Harvard College Observatory ), where it was in 1938 received his doctorate. In 1948 she received a permanent position as an astronomer at Harvard. In 1956 she moved to Yale University, where she remained until her retirement in 1975. At Yale University, she became known as author of the Bright Star Catalogue, the details of the 9110 brightest stars in the firmament contains ( stars that are visible to the naked eye). She is also co-author of the General Catalogue of Trigonometric Stellar Parallax, which contains (measured by the parallax) of 8112 stars the distances.

She was from 1957 to 1978 director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory on Nantucket Iceland, where she gave courses for female astronomers in the summer months.

With Harlan J. Smith discovered the brightness variations of the first discovered quasar 3C 273 She wrote an autobiography ( Misfortunes and blessings in disguise: the story of my life ). In 1988, she received the George Van Biesbroeck Prize of the American Astronomical Society.

The asteroid ( 3416 ) Dorrit is named after her.

Source

• John Daintith (ed.) Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists, CRC Press 2009