Helen Sawyer Hogg

Helen Battles Sawyer Hogg, CC (August 1, 1905 – January 28, 1993) was a prolific astronomer noted for her research into globular clusters. She is best remembered for her astronomy column, which ran from 1951 until 1981 in the Toronto Star, and her articles on the history of astronomy which ran from 1946 until 1965 in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada under the title “Out of Old Books”. A 1926 graduate of Mount Holyoke Colleg... more

Helen Battles Sawyer Hogg, CC (August 1, 1905 – January 28, 1993) was a prolific astronomer noted for her research into globular clusters. She is best remembered for her astronomy column, which ran from 1951 until 1981 in the Toronto Star, and her articles on the history of astronomy which ran from 1946 until 1965 in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada under the title “Out of Old Books”. A 1926 graduate of Mount Holyoke College, after graduation she went on to Harvard Observatory to work with Annie Jump Cannon and Harlow Shapley on star clusters. She received her doctorate in 1931 from Radcliffe College. She married husband Frank Scott Hogg in 1930, and the two moved to Victoria, British Columbia. There Frank had a job at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory. Helen was not hired, though, and had to work as his volunteer assistant. In 1935, the couple moved again to Ontario where she took a job at the David Dunlap Observatory. Helen Hogg's research during this... less