Ada Margaret Brayton (December 27, 1885 – January 1975) was a life member of the American Astronomical Society, and co-author of the monumental book, ''Spectroscopic Absolute Magnitudes and Distances of 4719 Stars'' that increased the number of stars of known distance one hundred-fold.

Early life

Ada Margaret Brayton was born on December 27, 1885, in

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

, to Franklin B. Brayton and Grace Treloar.

Career

The top of the 150-Foot Solar Tower Observatory on Mt

She was a member of the staff of

Mount Wilson Observatory The Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) is an Observatory#Astronomical observatories, astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson (California), Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabrie ...

, the Astronomical Computer Department of stellar spectroscopy. She was a life member of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

and member of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico. In 1920, she found that the radial velocity of the star Boss 3644 was variable thanks to her measures of three spectrograms made with the 60-inch reflector and single prism spectrograph. In 1935, Brayton, together with Walter Sydney Adams, Alfred H. Joy (1882–1973), and Milton La Salle Humason (1891–1972), published a monumental book, ''Spectroscopic Absolute Magnitudes and Distances of 4719 Stars'' that increased the number of stars of known distance by one hundred-fold. She was an accredited teacher, translator and interpreter of Spanish. She was the first vice-president of California Federation of Business & Professional Women's Clubs and president of Pasadena Business and Professional Women's Club from 1928 to 1929. She was the president of the Pasadena Chapter of the Grenfell Association of America. She was a member of the Lucretia Garfield Circle and the Ladies of G. A. R.

Personal and later life

She lived in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

, with her brother, Wilbur Newman Brayton (died 1940), a veteran of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In 1924, The Ada Margaret Brayton Endowment Fund of $20,000.00 ($279,112.14 in 2017) was established to be used for the best interest of the California Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc. She died in January 1975, aged 89.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brayton, Ada Margaret 20th-century American educators Academics from Nebraska