Ada Margaret Brayton 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 in Nebraska, the daughter of 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 astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles. The observat ...

, 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 life

She lived at 469 Ladera Street,

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, 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 commercial district. I ...

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

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Legacy

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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brayton, Ada Margaret American educators People from Nebraska