Ada Margaret Brayton

Ada Margaret Brayton (December 27, 1885 – January 1975) was a life member of the American Astronomical Society, and co-author of the monumental book, Spectroscopic Absolute Magnitudes and Distances of 4719 Stars that increased the number of stars of known distance one hundred-fold. Early life Ada Margaret Brayton was born in Nebraska, the daughter of Franklin B. Brayton and Grace Treloar. Career She was a member of the staff of Mount Wilson Observatory, the Astronomical Computer Department of stellar spectroscopy. She was a life member of the American Astronomical Society and member of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico. In 1920 she found that the radial velocity of the star Boss 3644 was variable thanks to her measures of three spectrograms made with the 60-inch reflector and single prism spectrograph. In 1935, Brayton, together with Walter Sydney Adams, Alfred H. Joy (1882-1973), and Milton La Salle Humason (1891-1972), published a monumental book, Spectroscopic Absolute Magnitudes and Distances of 4719 Stars that increased the number of stars of known distance by one hundred-fold.