Noted astronomers from throughout the United States and Canada will gather at Yale Friday-Saturday, March 7-8, for a symposium to celebrate the 90th birthday of Yale astronomer Dorrit Hoffleit.
Ms. Hoffleit has been member of the Yale faculty since 1956, and continues her research and writing as a senior research astronomer. Renowned for the quality of her data on the brightest stars and for observations of stars with variable brightness, she received the 1988 Van Biesbroeck Award for her unselfish dedication to astronomy and for publishing "The Bright Star Catalogue" in 1982, which documents 9,110 stars that are visible to the naked eye.
Last year, Ms. Hoffleit and Yale colleagues William F. van Altena and John T. Lee finished an 18-year project by publishing the fourth edition of "The General Catalogue of Trigonometric Stellar Parallaxes." Astrophysicists worldwide depend upon its precise measurements of distances to 8,112 stars to explore questions about stellar evolution and the size and age of the universe.
Ms. Hoffleit began her career as a research assistant and astronomer at Harvard College observatory 1929-56; during this period, she had a five-year World War II assignment as a mathematician at the Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. She served 1957-78 as director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory in Nantucket, Massachusetts, an observatory that is a memorial to America's first woman astronomer, and she has helped guide many young women into scientific careers.
The symposium will take place 1-5 p.m on Friday in Kline Geology Auditorium, 210 Whitney Ave. Topics that day will include spectroscopy, "The Bright Star Catalogue" and historic astronomical discoveries. Ms. Hoffleit will speak on "Suspected Variables Among Al Sufi Stars" at 4:15 p.m.
The event will continue 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday. Topics will include variable stars, meteors and comets, education and astrometry.
The public is invited to attend the free lectures.