History Of Astronomy - The Greenwich Computers, by Paul Wright

In the year of the 350th Anniversary of the Royal Observatory Greenwich, Paul told us about the women computers who worked there, whom he described as “the unsung heroes of astronomy”.

Initially, boys were recruited to do the labourious calculations needed to compile star charts and catalogues for the Astronomers Royal, such as George Airy and William Christie. They were paid a pittance - between £36 and £94 per annum. Most earned £36 per annum, worked in poor conditions, and it was many years before their efforts were properly recognised.

The boy computers were recruited from local schools and had to sit exams to qualify. They were poorly treated, not expected to stay very long, and would usually have left by the age of 23. However, their work at the Royal Observatory Greenwich gave them valuable experience. Between 1880 and 1890, 33 junior computers were recruited - 13 went on to work in science and astronomy, and 13 entered commerce.

The work of the women computers began around 1890 and was driven by William Christie, who had the idea of recruiting qualified women as supernumerary computers. These women had completed mathematics courses at Cambridge, although women were not formally awarded degrees until 1923.

Five women were eventually recruited on broadly the same terms as the boy computers. The two most notable were Alice Everett, who joined in 1890, and Annie Russell (later Maunder, after her marriage to an observatory spectroscopy assistant).

All the supernumerary computers worked together in the Octagon Room at the Observatory, which can still be seen today.

Annie Russell retired in 1895 to marry Walter Maunder, but continued to support his work, informally and unpaid, on the periodicity of sunspots, compiling a catalogue of some 600 recurrent sunspots. The Maunder butterfly diagram of sunspots is well known to solar observers. In 1910, Walter Maunder acknowledged that this work was largely hers.

There is a blue plaque on the house in Brockley where they lived, on which they are both described as “Astronomers”.

Our thanks again to Paul - this talk, along with his two previous ones, was enlightening and enjoyable, and gave us a deeper insight into our local Observatory.

Pictures from the evening (by Mike Meynell):