astronomy

Mary Acworth Evershed

Mary Acworth Evershed is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mary Acworth Evershed rather than just read about it. In short: Mary Acworth Evershed (née Orr; 1 January 1867 – 25 October 1949) was a British astronomer and scholar. Her work on Dante Alighieri was written under the pen name M.A.

Key takeaways

Mary Acworth Evershed belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mary Acworth Evershed to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mary Acworth Evershed from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mary Acworth Evershed (née Orr; 1 January 1867 – 25 October 1949) was a British astronomer and scholar. Her work on Dante Alighieri was written under the pen name M.A. Orr.

Early life Mary Acworth Orr was born to Lucy Erskine Acworth (1841–1904) and Andrew Orr (ca. 1830–1870) on 1 January 1867 at Plymouth Hoe. Her father was an officer in the Royal Artillery, who married in 1859. Mary grew up in Wimborne and South Stoke in Somerset. Mary’s youngest brother was the colonial administrator Charles William James Orr. When she was 20, Orr travelled abroad with her sisters and, when in Florence (1888–1890) began a study of the works of Dante, which led to her lifelong interest in astronomical references in Dante's poems.

Astronomical career In 1890, Orr moved with her family to Australia. She found there was no good guide to the southern stars, so wrote An Easy Guide to the Southern Stars, with the encouragement of John Tebbutt, the leading astronomer in Australia at the time. In 1895, she moved back to England and met fellow British astronomer John Evershed when they both participated in an expedition to view a total solar eclipse of 9 August 1896 in Norway Orr subsequently joined the British Astronomical Association (BAA). At this time, the BAA enjoyed the membership of intellectual women barred from the (then) all-male Royal Astronomical Society. During this time, she became friends with Agnes Clerke and Annie Scott Dill Maunder, both notable for their contributions to historical astronomy. Orr married Evershed in 1906. Up to this time, he had worked as an industrial chemist with solar physics as a hobby but, in 1906, was offered a post as assistant astronomer at Kodaikanal Observatory in India. Mary and John moved to Kodaikanal (visiting notable astronomical locations in the United States on the way) to allow him to take up the post in 1907. While in India, Mary collected plants from the region, which were ultimately deposited in the British Museum herbarium. While at Kodaikanal, Mary completed an index to the library at the observatory. In 1909, she is recorded as measuring the position angles and heights of solar prominences from photographs taken at the observatory’s spectroheliograph. In 1915, she accompanied her husband on an astronomical expedition to Srinagar in Kashmir. In 1916, Mary was elected to the membership of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. On the 9 May 1924 as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Lastly, she directed the BAA’s Historical Section from its inception in 1930 to 1944. Throughout her life, Evershed travelled to numerous solar eclipses, including Norway in 1896, Algiers in 1900, Western Australia in 1922, Yorkshire in 1927, and Greece/Aegean Sea in 1936.

Dante scholarship Evershed was also greatly interested in poetry, and while she loved Dante's work, she was worried about his cosmography. Her 1914 book Dante and the Early Astronomers helped clarify Dante's science, as accurate as it could be given existing knowledge.

Bibliography Two Letters Addressed to the Bishop of Ripon, on Secularism, the Holy Scriptures, and the Geographical Position of the Garden of Eden (1876) Easy Guide to Southern Stars (1896) Southern Stars: A Guide to the Constellations Visible in the Southern Hemisphere, preface by John Tebbutt, with a miniature star atlas (London, 1896) Black Star-Lore. Journal of the British Astronomical Association, vol. 9 (1898), pp.68-70 Variable Stars of Long Period. Journal of the British Astronomical Association, vol. 15 (1905), pp.129-132 Dante and Mediaeval Astronomy. The Observatory vol. 34 (1911), p. 440 (as Mr. and Mrs. Evershed) Some Types of Prominences Associated with Sun-Spots. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 73 (1913), p. 422 The Origin of the Constellations. The Observatory vol. 36 (1913), p. 179 Dante and the Early Astronomers. Gall & Inglis (1914) The Sea-goat. The Observatory vol. 37 (1914), p. 322 Stars of the Southern Skies. Longmans, Green & Co. (1915) Results of Prominence Observations. Memoirs of the Kodaikanal Observatory, vol. 1, pt. 2 (1917), (as J and M A Evershed) Recent Work at Arcetri. The Observatory vol. 58 (1932), p. 254 (as Mr. and Mrs. Evershed) Arab Astronomy. The Observatory vol. 58 (1935), p. 237 Who's Who in the Moon. Memoirs of the British Astronomical Association vol. 34 (1938), pt. 1, pp. 1-130. (an index to named lunar craters)

Awards and honours 1924 – Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society 1971 - The minor planet 12628 Acworthorr is discovered and named after Evershed.

References

Further reading Mary T. Brück, "Mary Ackworth Evershed née Orr (1867–1949), solar physicist and Dante scholar", Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage (ISSN 1440-2807), Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 45–59 (1998). Mary T. Brück, "Mary Ackworth Orr Evershed", The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, v.5, pp. 351–352. Tracy Daugherty, "Passion for Poetry and Stars Drove 'Dante's Astronomer'", Oregon State University, Spring 2009. Tracy Daugherty, "Dante and the Early Astronomer", Yale University Press, 2019

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mary Acworth Evershed

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mary Acworth Evershed claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mary Acworth Evershed before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mary Acworth Evershed ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mary Acworth Evershed

In research: Mary Acworth Evershed appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mary Acworth Evershed in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mary Acworth Evershed is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1867 births, 1949 deaths, 19th-century British astronomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mary Acworth Evershed outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mary Acworth Evershed in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mary Acworth Evershed means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mary Acworth Evershed out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mary Acworth Evershed in simple terms?

Mary Acworth Evershed (née Orr; 1 January 1867 – 25 October 1949) was a British astronomer and scholar. Her work on Dante Alighieri was written under the pen name M.A.

Why does Mary Acworth Evershed matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mary Acworth Evershed?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mary Acworth Evershed.