As a young child, one of Annie Jump Cannon’s favorite playthings was not a toy but a piece of glass from her family’s decorative candle holder — a candelabra. Beautifully cut crystals hung from the five arms of the candelabra and made the candlelight twinkle. Each was artfully cut in the shape of a rectangle and fit neatly in her tiny hands. Annie would carefully remove a crystal and hold it in the sunlight and watch a brilliant rainbow of colors dance on the walls. This fascination with the colors in light stayed with Annie for the rest of her life and helped change the way we see stars today. During the 1860s, when Annie was growing up, it was uncom- mon for girls to study the sciences, especially beyond high school. But Annie was fortunate. Her parents encouraged her to pursue the things that interested her. For Annie, this was astronomy — the study of stars, planets, and other objects in space. They gave Annie an old astronomy textbook and built a homemade observatory on the roof of their Delaware home to observe the nighttime sky and learn the constellations. She scanned the skies regularly and kept a logbook of what she saw and the facts she learned.
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