Articles

Becker, B. “How William Huggins Shaped Astrophysics.” Astronomy (September 2018): 44. On how he used spectroscopy and the Doppler effect to determine motions of stars.

Berman, B. “Magnitude Cum Laude.” Astronomy (December 1998): 92. How we measure the apparent brightnesses of stars is discussed.

Croswell, K. “Who Really Discovered Stellar Proper Motion.” Sky & Telescope(June 2022): 30. Argues that it wasn’t Halley, but Cassini, using Arcturus.

Dvorak, J. “The Women Who Created Modern Astronomy [including Annie Cannon].” Sky & Telescope (August 2013): 28.

Gottlieb, S. “Williamina Fleming’s Deep-Sky Discoveries.” Sky & Telescope(August 2023): 20. On the work of the pioneering woman astronomer.

Hearnshaw, J. “Origins of the Stellar Magnitude Scale.” Sky & Telescope (November 1992): 494. A good history of how we have come to have this cumbersome system is discussed.

Hirshfeld, A. “The Absolute Magnitude of Stars.” Sky & Telescope (September 1994): 35.

Kaler, J. “Stars in the Cellar: Classes Lost and Found.” Sky & Telescope (September 2000): 39. An introduction is provided for spectral types and the new classes L and T.

Kaler, J. “Origins of the Spectral Sequence.” Sky & Telescope (February 1986): 129.

Morley, C. “The In-Betweeners.” Sky & Telescope(March 2022): 34. On objects that could be brown dwarfs or large exoplanets.

Sneden, C. “Reading the Colors of the Stars.” Astronomy (April 1989): 36. This article includes a discussion of what we learn from spectroscopy.

Steffey, P. “The Truth about Star Colors.” Sky & Telescope (September 1992): 266. The color index and how the eye and film “see” colors are discussed.

Tomkins, J. “Once and Future Celestial Kings.” Sky & Telescope (April 1989): 59. Calculating the motion of stars and determining which stars were, are, and will be brightest in the sky are discussed.

Tyson, P. “What is the Stellar Magnitude System?” Sky & Telescope(May 2023): 72. Introduction for beginners.

Websites

Annie J. Cannon page at Project Continua: http://www.projectcontinua.org/annie-jump-cannon/. A summary of her life and work.

Brown Dwarfs: An Introduction: https://www.space.com/23798-brown-dwarfs.html. A short guide by a journalist.

Discovery of Brown Dwarfs: http://w.astro.berkeley.edu/~basri/bdwarfs/SciAm-book.pdf.

Huggins, Sir William: Scientific Obituary: https://ia802906.us.archive.org/1/items/jstor-40691722/40691722.pdf. A long, personal article from 1910 by astronomer William Campbell.

Spectral Types of Stars: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-equipment/the-spectral-types-of-stars/.

The Lick Observatory: https://www.ucolick.org/main/index.html

Unheard Voices! The Contributions of Women to Astronomy: A Resource Guide: http://bit.ly/astronomywomen.

What Is Stellar Magnitude: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/what-is-stellar-magnitude/. A beginner’s introduction to the system of magnitudes for objects in the sky.

Videos

Effect of Proper Motion on the Appearance of the Big Dipper over 200,000 years: https://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/pogge.1/Ast162/Movies/proper.html. Short animation, in several formats, to show the Big Dipper between 100,000 BC and 100,000 AD.

Stellar Spectroscopy: What we Can Learn about the Stars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM5lEG2woA0. An introduction by an enthusiastic Australian physics teacher (16:44).

Understanding the Magnitude System for Stars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P8Veb_AlJ0. An introduction by amateur astronomer Robert Fuller (5:32).

Unraveling Starlight: William and Margaret Huggins and the Rise of the New Astronomy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWDKuEgyuQw. A nontechnical talk by Dr. Barbara Becker, astronomy historian, who wrote a book by that title (51:52).

When You Are Just Too Small to be a Star: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXCDsb4n4KU. 2013 Public Talk on Brown Dwarfs and Planets by Dr. Gibor Basri of the University of California–Berkeley (1:32:52).