APOD: 2021 July 27 - Flemings Triangular Wisp

Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Fleming's Triangular Wisp." This section of the Veil Nebula (NGC 6979) is found some 2,400 light years away in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan). It is also called 'Pickering's Triangle.' Why the two names? Pickering was Edward Charles Pickering, professor of astronomy and director of the Harvard Observatory. Fleming was Scottish lass Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming, born in 1857 and married to James Fleming in 1877.

In 1878, Williamina and her husband emigrated to Boston. She was hired by Pickering in 1881, which marked the start of a 32-year career in the field of astronomy. She developed the first system to classify stars according to their spectra. Over 10,000 stars were cataloged by 1890. In addition to the Veil Nebula and Fleming's Triangular Wisp, she is credited with discovering 51 other nebulae, 10 novae, and 310 variable stars. In 1906, she was first woman elected to the UK's Royal Astronomical Society in recognition of her achievements. And an American woman at that.

That's one of the things I like about background stories. You never know quite how they are going to turn out.