Charlotte Moore Sitterly
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Charlotte Emma Moore Sitterly (September 24 1898 – March 3 1990) was an American astronomer.
Charlotte Moore graduated from Swarthmore College and went on to Princeton to assist Henry Norris Russell. She worked extensively on solar spectroscopy, analyzing the spectral lines of the Sun and thereby identifying the chemical elements in the Sun. She got a Ph.D. in California in 1931 and then returned to Princeton.
During her second stay at Princeton, she met and married Bancroft W. Sitterly, who became a physics professor. She joined the then National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in 1945. Her tables of atomic spectra and energy levels, published by NBS, have remained essential references in spectroscopy for decades.
Later in her life, it became possible to launch instruments on rockets and she extended her work to the ultraviolet spectral lines.
Honors
Awards
- Annie J. Cannon Award (1937)
- William F. Meggers Award of the Optical Society of America (1972)
- Bruce Medal (1990)
Named after her