Helen Lines

{{Short description|American astronomer}} '''Helen Chambliss Williams Lines''' (July 13, 1918 – January 29, 2001) was an American amateur astronomer. In her beginnings she was a deep-sky observer and astrophotographer.

== Astronomy == In 1969, Lines was one of early members of the Phoenix Astronomical Society.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Murray |first=Clyde |date=1969-01-05 |title=State amateur stargazers' numbers jump |pages=13 |work=Arizona Republic |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109399927/state-amateur-stargazers-numbers-jump/ |access-date=2022-09-12 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Lines was a member of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. She and her husband, civil engineer Richard D. Lines,<ref>{{Cite news |date=1962-04-07 |title=Comet Spied by Engineer |pages=25 |work=Arizona Republic |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109419558/comet-spied-by-engineer/ |access-date=2022-09-12 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> built a small observatory in Mayer, Arizona,<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Study of Variable Stars Using Small Telescopes |date=1986 |publisher=CUP Archive |others=Royal Astronomical Society of Canada |isbn=978-0-521-33300-9 |pages=241 |language=en}}</ref> and wrote about its construction for ''Sky & Telescope''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Lines |first1=Richard D. |last2=Lines |first2=Helen C. |date=September 1968 |title="A New Amateur Observatory in Central Arizona" |journal=Sky & Telescope |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=183–186}}</ref> In 1992 they won the Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for their work in the field of photoelectric photometry of variable stars.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://astrosociety.org/who-we-are/awards/awards.html/item/11074333/title/past-recipients|title=Past recipients|publisher=Astronomical Society of the Pacific|accessdate=12 September 2022 |language=}}</ref> She was a co-author on two scientific papers published in the mid-1990s.<ref name=":1">van Hamme, W.V.; Hall, D.S.; Hargrove, A.W.; Henry, G.W.; Wasson, R.; Barkslade, W.S.; Chang, S.; Fried, R.E.; Green, C.L.; Lines, H.C.; Lines, R.D.; Nielsen, P.; Powell, H.D.; Reisenweber, R.C.; Rogers, C.W.; Shervais, S.; Tatum, R. [https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/coe-research/286/ "The Two Variables in The Triple System HR 6469=V819 Her: One Eclipsing, One Spotted"] ''Astronomical Journal'' 107(1994): , p.1521.</ref><ref name=":2">Crews, L.J.; Hall, D.S.; Henry, G.W.; Lines, R.D.; Lines, H.C.; Fried, R.E. [https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/coe-research/280/ "Starspots Found on the Ellipsoidal Variable V350 Lacertae = HR 8575"] ''Astronomical Journal'' 109(1995): , p.1346.</ref>

== Publications ==

* "A New Amateur Observatory in Central Arizona" (1968, with Richard D. Lines)<ref name=":0" /> * "UBVRI photometry of the recurrent nova T coronae borealis" (1988, with Richard D. Lines and Thomas G. McFaul)<ref>Lines, Helen C., Richard D. Lines, and Thomas G. McFaul. [https://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1988AJ.....95.1505L "UBVRI photometry of the recurrent nova T coronae borealis."] ''The Astronomical Journal'' 95 (1988): 1505-1509.</ref> * "Evolution of starspots in the long-period RS CVN binary V1817 Cygni = HR 7428" (1990, with Richard D. Lines, Douglas S. Hall, and Susan E. Gessner)<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=Douglas S. |last2=Gessner |first2=Susan E. |last3=Lines |first3=Helen C. |last4=Lines |first4=Richard D. |date=December 1990 |title=Evolution of starspots in the long-period RS CVN binary V1817 Cygni = HR 7428 |url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?1990AJ....100.2017H |journal=The Astronomical Journal |volume=100 |pages=2017 |doi=10.1086/115656|bibcode=1990AJ....100.2017H }}</ref> * "The Two Variables in The Triple System HR 6469=V819 Her: One Eclipsing, One Spotted" (1994, with 16 other authors)<ref name=":1" /> * "Starspots Found on the Ellipsoidal Variable V350 Lacertae = HR 8575" (1995, with 5 other authors)<ref name=":2" />

== Personal life == Helen Chambliss Williams was born in Forrest City, Arkansas, the daughter of Russell Williams and Sadie Borden Williams. Her father was the chief of police in Forrest City.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1932-01-01 |title=Body of Missing Merchant Found |pages=1 |work=Hope Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109417185/body-of-missing-merchant-found/ |access-date=2022-09-12 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She married Richard Damon Lines in 1936. They had a daughter, Chambliss. Richard Lines died in 1992,<ref>{{Cite news |date=1992-07-01 |title=Obituary for Richard Damon Lines (Aged 76) |pages=28 |work=Arizona Republic |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109413963/obituary-for-richard-damon-lines-aged/ |access-date=2022-09-12 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and Helen Lines died in 2001, aged 82 years, in Searcy, Arkansas.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170208/http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/SACNEWS/sac1992/sac.9209.pdf Saguaro Astronomy Club: The Passing of Richard Lines] *[http://www.astrosociety.org/membership/awards/pastamateur.html Amateur Achievement Award winners] *[http://pasaz.org/history.html History of Phoenix Astronomical Society]

{{s-start}} {{succession box | before = Otto Kippes | title = Amateur Achievement Award of Astronomical Society of the Pacific (together with Richard D. Lines) | years = 1992 | after = David H. Levy}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lines, Helen}} Category:1918 births Category:2001 deaths Category:People from Forrest City, Arkansas Category:American women astronomers Category:Amateur astronomers Category:20th-century American astronomers Category:20th-century American women scientists