{{short description|American astronomer}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Margaret Mayall | image = | birth_date = January 27, 1902 | birth_place = Iron Hill, Maryland, US | death_date = {{death date and age |1995|12|06 |1902|01|27 |mf=yes}} | death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, US | ethnicity = | field = Astronomy | education = Swarthmore College | work_institutions = | alma_mater = Swarthmore College<br/>Radcliffe College <small>(M.A.)</small> | prizes = | religion = | signature = }}
'''Margaret Walton Mayall''' (January 27, 1902 – December 6, 1995) was an American astronomer. She was the director of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) from 1949 to 1973.<ref name="obit">{{Cite web|url=https://aas.org/obituaries/margaret-walton-mayall-1902-1995|title=Margaret Walton Mayall (1902–1995)|publisher=American Astronomical Society|website=aas.org|language=en|access-date=2016-03-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322123323/https://aas.org/obituaries/margaret-walton-mayall-1902-1995|archive-date=2016-03-22|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Mayall (born Margaret Lyle Walton) was born in Iron Hill, Maryland, on January 27, 1902.<ref name="obit"/> The northern lights and Halley's comet in 1910 are stated to have stimulated her interest in astronomy at a young age.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=1996BAAS...28.1455H Page 1455 |url=https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1996BAAS...28.1455H |access-date=2025-10-31 |website=adsabs.harvard.edu}}</ref> She attended the University of Delaware, where her interest in astronomy grew after taking math and chemistry courses.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 16, 2015 |title=Halley's Comet & Northern Lights Stimulated Interest in Astronomy for a Young Lady From Iron Hill |url=https://cecilcountyhistory.com/tag/margaret-walton/ |access-date=2022-11-03 |website=Window on Cecil County's Past |language=en-US}}</ref> She then moved to Swarthmore College, where she received her Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics in 1925.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" />
She earned an MA in astronomy from Radcliffe College, Harvard University, in 1928 and worked as a research assistant and astronomer at Harvard College Observatory from 1924 to 1954, initially working with Annie Jump Cannon on classifying star spectra and estimating star brightness.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Notick |first=Samantha |date=2022 |title=Margaret Walton Mayall |url=https://library.cfa.harvard.edu/margaret-walton-mayall |access-date=2022-11-03 |website=Wolbach Library |language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221103190542/https://library.cfa.harvard.edu/margaret-walton-mayall|archive-date=November 3, 2022}}</ref> During this time, she would spend summers working with Margaret Hardwood of the Maria Mitchell Observatory in Nantucket, MA, where she became interested in researching variable stars.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Margaret Walton Mayall |url=https://library.cfa.harvard.edu/women-at-hco/margaret-walton-mayall |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=library.cfa.harvard.edu |language=en}}</ref> She was a research staff member at the Heat Research Laboratory, Special Weapons Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1943 to 1946.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Saladyga |first1=Michael |title=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers |url=http://www.fulviofrisone.com/attachments/article/464/Springer-Verlag%20The%20Biographical%20Encyclopedia%20of%20Astronomers.pdf |page=751}}</ref>
== Personal life == While working in Nantucket, she met Robert Newton Mayall, a member of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), and would marry in 1927.<ref name="obit"/> They co-wrote several books on sundial and other subjects while working with the Ernst Sundial Collection of Harvard.<ref name=":1" />
She died of congestive heart failure in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 6 December 1995.<ref name="obit"/>
== Awards == In 1957, she was the recipient of the G. Bruce Blair Gold Medal from the Western Amateur Society.<ref name=":1" />
In 1958, she won the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy.<ref name="obit" />
In 1982, a minor planet was named, 3342 Fivesparks, in honor of her and her husband's home in Cambridge.<ref name=":1" />
==References== <references/>
==Further reading== *{{cite book|last1=Williams|first1=Thomas R. |last2= Saladyga|first2=Michael|title=Advancing Variable Star Astronomy: The Centennial History of the American Association of Variable Star Observers|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-49634-6}}
==External links== *[http://www.aavso.org/margaret-mayall Letters at the AAVSO] *[https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/28323-1 Oral history interview with Margaret Mayall on 11 August 1986, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives] - Session I *[https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/28323-2 Oral history interview with Margaret Mayall on 12 September 1986, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives] - Session II *[https://zenodo.org/record/8326#.W73xWbxKjrc The Harold C. Ernst Collection of Portable Sundials]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayall, Maraget}} Category:1902 births Category:1995 deaths Category:American women astronomers Category:Recipients of the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy Category:20th-century American women scientists Category:People from Cecil County, Maryland Category:20th-century American scientists Category:Radcliffe College alumni Category:Swarthmore College alumni Category:Harvard College Observatory people