February 25 - Happy Birthday, Maria Margaretha Kirch

Posted on February 25, 2020

Maria Margaretha Winkelmann

Born 25 February 1670 - near Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony

Died 29 December 1720 - in Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia

Saxony? Prussia? Do you know where those places were? The city names give those of us who don't know a clue: those cities still exist, in the nation of Germany.

(The Electorate of Saxony was once a state in the Holy Roman Empire.)

Winkelmann was lucky to have the parents she had: her father believed that girls should have as good an education as boys, so he taught her loads of subjects. Her brother-in-law joined in to teach her - AND an astronomer named Christoph Arnold happened to live near their house, and he taught her astronomy.

Maria Winkelmann found the astronomy really interesting, and she ended up becoming Arnold's apprentice and later assistant.

Women (and girls) were not then allowed to attend universities, but at that time astronomy mostly took place away from universities. Also, most astronomers weren't paid to observe the night skies - even most big-time discoveries were made by amateurs! Arnold, for example, was an amateur astronomer and a full-time farmer.

When Maria Winkelmann met a more famous astronomer and mathematician, Gottfried Kirch, she ended up romantically involved; soon they married and had four children. All of the children also studied astronomy - so it was an entire family of 6 astronomers! They relocated to Berlin when Frederick I of Prussia appointed Gottfried Kirch as his royal astronomer.

Maria Kirch is famous for discovering a comet (she was the first woman to discover a comet!), for predicting another comet, for observing and writing about the Aurora Borealis, and especially for writing on the conjunction of the Sun with Saturn and Venus.

So...in astronomy, what's a conjunction?

It is when two astronomical objects seem to be lined up close together in the sky, as viewed from the Earth. Of course, seeming near one another in our skies doesn't mean that they are near one another in space!

Here is a conjunction of Mercury and Venus, seen above the Moon:

It's actually really hard to see conjunctions with the Sun because of the glare!

The Kirch family made careful observations of the skies, including of weather, and produced both calendars and almanacs. When Maria Kirch's husband died, she tried to take his place as paid astronomer and calendar-maker at the Royal Academy of Sciences. The president of the Academy supported her, but the executive council said no way - because, although they found Kirch a worthy candidate for the position, they didn't want to set a precedent for the future and maybe have to allow another woman in the position.

Sigh.

This wasn't just a matter of pride - Kirch needed the money that the position would have provided to her and her family!

Kirch published articles under her own name, and she reached the rank of master astronomer while working for another amateur astronomer; she later became an assistant to a professor of mathematics. Through all of this, she and her children continued to create accurate calendars and almanacs.

Get this: Eventually, Maria Kirch's son was appointed to the position her husband had once held, and so she once again became the assistant!

Aaaannnd, get this: Male academy members complained that Maria Kirch was "too visible at the observatory when strangers visit"!!! She was ordered to stay in the background, and stay silent, when visitors were around.

She disobeyed the order - and they booted her from the observatory.

Double sigh!