7. ABILITY TO JUDGE – The Ability to Judge of Annie Jump Cannon
Annie’s signature genius was being able to read, judge, and clas- sify each star faster and more accurately than anyone: three stars a minute, two hundred stars an hour, over 350,000 in her career. She classified more stars this way than anyone ever. Because Annie poured her heart into accomplishing what she aimed to do, she found what she did to be thrilling and spiritually energizing — something you can’t buy at the store., “It is not just a streak of light to me, but a gateway to a wonderful new world.” In addition to judging and classifying existing stars, she saw things in photographs no one else did. She discovered over 300 rare variable stars, stars that are sometimes bright and sometimes dim. She also discovered five exploding stars called novas. “She had wonderful eyes,” one of her assistants commented, “and she could see things very few people would recognize until she pointed it out.” Annie made it easier for everyone to evaluate stars by taking two earlier classification systems and simplifying them into one. Her system arranged stars by decreasing temperature using the letters OBAFGKM, the hottest stars in the O category, the coolest stars in M – our Sun fits in G. It has been called “One of the major contributions of all time to astronomical science.”vIt is still in use today. With these words, it can be remembered, “Oh, be a fine guy, kiss me!”
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