Sarah Lee Lippincott (October 26, 1920 – February 28, 2019), also known as Sarah Lee Lippincott Zimmerman, was an American astronomer. She was

professor emerita ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

and director emerita of the college's

Sproul Observatory Sproul Observatory was an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Swarthmore College. It was located in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States, and named after William Cameron Sproul, the 27th Governor of Pennsylvania, who graduated ...

. She was a pioneer in the use of

astrometry Astrometry is a branch of astronomy that involves precise measurements of the positions and movements of stars and other celestial bodies. It provides the kinematics and physical origin of the Solar System and this galaxy, the Milky Way. His ...

to determine the character of binary stars and search for

extrasolar planets An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...

Education

Lippincott received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1941 and an

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

from

in 1942.

Life

Lippincott was born in 1920 and attended college at the

College for Women in the 1940s, where she played on the women's basketball team. After graduation from the University of Pennsylvania, Lippincott attended Swarthmore College, where she worked closely with

Peter van de Kamp Piet van de Kamp (December 26, 1901 in Kampen (Overijssel), KampenLaurence W. Fredrick, Peter van de Kamp (1901–1995)', Publications of the Astronomical Socitiey of the Pacific 108:556–559, July 1996 – May 18, 1995 in Amsterdam), known a ...

on many

projects between 1945 and his retirement in 1972, when she became observatory director. She wrote his obituary when he died in 1995. She was the third wife of the late

Dave Garroway David Cunningham Garroway (July 13, 1913 – July 21, 1982) was an American television personality. He was the founding host and anchor of NBC's ''Today'' from 1952 to 1961. His easygoing and relaxing style belied a lifelong battle with depressi ...

, the founding host of NBC's ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...

'' show. Garroway had an active interest in astronomy, and they met on a tour of observatories in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

that she was hosting. After Garroway's death by suicide at their home in 1982, she helped establish the Dave Garroway Laboratory for the Study of Depression at the

. She conducted numerous

astrometric Astrometry is a branch of astronomy that involves precise measurements of the positions and movements of stars and other celestial bodies. It provides the kinematics and physical origin of the Solar System and this galaxy, the Milky Way. His ...

studies of nearby stars with van de Kamp in the search for

. She reported the discovery of several objects of substellar mass and proposed a 0.01 solar-mass planetary companion to the star ''

Lalande 21185 Lalande 21185 (also known as BD+36 2147, Gliese 411, and HD 95735) is a star in the south of Ursa Major. It is the apparent brightest red dwarf in the northern hemisphere.Only AX Microscopii and Lacaille 9352, in the southern hemisphere ...

'' in 1951. The same proposal of planetary objects was made for a number of other stars, as well. Claims for the smaller planetary objects were never confirmed and gradually have become discredited. However, she was quite successful in using the same techniques for characterizing many binary star systems. Her 1951 calculations of the orbit of the difficult astronomical binary star system ''

Ross 614 Ross 614 (V577 Monocerotis) is a red dwarf UV Ceti flare star and it is the primary member of a nearby binary star system in the constellation of Monoceros. This star has a magnitude of about 11, making it invisible to the unaided eye ...

'' were used to successfully find and image the system's secondary star. These calculations were used by

Walter Baade Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade (March 24, 1893 – June 25, 1960) was a German astronomer who worked in the United States from 1931 to 1959. Biography The son of a teacher, Baade finished school in 1912. He then studied maths, physics and astr ...

to find and optically resolve this binary system for the first time using the then new

Hale Telescope The Hale Telescope is a , 3.3 reflecting telescope at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, US, named after astronomer George Ellery Hale. With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1928, he orchestrated the planning, de ...

at the Palomar Observatory in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. She is listed as professor emerita of astronomy and director emerita of the Sproul Observatory in the 2010 Swarthmore college catalog. She last published astronomy research papers in 1983. In 2009, she attended the dedication ceremony for the new Peter van de Kamp observatory at Swarthmore College. Lippincott died on February 28, 2019, in Kendal Longwood.

Honors and awards

In 1966, she received the Kappa Kappa Gamma Alumnae Achievement Award. In 1973, she was awarded an

honorary doctor of science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

Villanova University Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinians in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Sa ...

. In 1976, she was elected to the Distinguished Daughters of Pennsylvania (as Mrs.

Christian Zimmerman Benjamin Christian Zimmerman is an American pastor, former politician, retired United States Air Force pilot, and commercial pilot from Idaho. Zimmerman was a Republican member of Idaho House of Representatives. Early life On April 14, 1940, Zi ...

Sample publications

Books

Lippincott authored two books, with coauthors:
Philadelphia: The Unexpected City
with

Laurence Lafore Laurence David Lafore (born Laurence Davis Lafore, 1917, Narberth, Pennsylvania-November 24, 1985, Iowa City, Iowa) was an American historian. Background Lafore was born into a wealthy family off the Main Line of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Th ...

; Publisher: Doubleday & Co.; 1st edition (January 1, 1965); ASIN: B002LQQJR4
Point to the Stars - Revised Edition
with Joseph Maron Joseph; Publisher:

McGraw-Hill Book Company McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referen ...

(1967); ASIN: B002BG231A

Papers

Lippincott published over one hundred papers in her career. These are two typical examples:
A determination of the parallax and mass-ratio of 6 Equulei
by van de Kamp, Peter and Lippincott, Sarah Lee,

Astronomical Journal ''The Astronomical Journal'' (often abbreviated ''AJ'' in scientific papers and references) is a peer-reviewed monthly scientific journal owned by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and currently published by IOP Publishing. It is one of th ...

, Volume 51, Page 162 (1945)
An unseen companion to 36 Ursae Majoris A from analysis of plates taken with the Sproul 61-CM refractor
by Lippincott, S. L. Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Publications, Volume 95, Pages 775-777 (1983)

References

External links

1975 Swarthmore College faculty photographSwarthmore College, Faculty and Instructional Staff - Emeriti"SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System" BibliographySarah Lee Lippincott Zimmerman, directory page at the IAU
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lippincott, Sarah Lee 1920 births 2019 deaths American women astronomers 20th-century American astronomers 21st-century American astronomers Swarthmore College faculty Scientists from Philadelphia 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists American women academics