Astronomers, Astrophysicists, Astronauts, “C...-”
for the social studies and science classrooms, theme decor.

Annie Jump Cannon
Giovanni Cassini

Anders Celsius
Eugene Cernan

Annie Jump Cannon
b. 12-11-1863; Dover, Delaware
d. 4-13-1941; Cambridge, MA

Astronomer Annie Jump Cannon's cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification based on their temperatures.

The mnemonic device “Oh, Be A Fine Girl – Kiss Me!” is useful for remembering Cannon's “arbitrary” division of stars into the spectral classes O, B, A, F, G, K, M.

Cannon and Margaret W. Mayall discovered the Hourglass Nebula while working on the Henry Draper catalogue.

• Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography
• Annie Jump Cannon in Women of Science composite poster

Scott Carpenter
b. 5-1-1925; Boulder, CO
d. 10-10-2013; Denver

Scott Carpenter, one of the original seven astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury in April 1959, was the second American to orbit the Earth and the fourth American in space, following Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and John Glenn.

Giovanni Cassini
b. 6-8-1625; Perinaldo, Genoa, Italy
d. 9-14-1712; Paris, France

Giovanni Cassini, an astonomer, astrologer, and engineer, was the first to observe four of Saturn's four moons. Cassini's contributions to space exploration is commemorated in the Cassini-Huygens Saturn & Titan probe.

Anders Celsius
b. 11-27-1701; Uppsala, Sweden
d. 4-25-1744; Uppsala - tuberculosis

Anders Celsius, Swedish astronomer, is best known for his proposal of a temperature scale that bears his name.

Eugene Cernan
b. 3-14-1934; Chicago, IL

Astronaut Eugene Cernan has been into space three times: as pilot of Gemini 9A in June 1966; as lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969; and as commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972, the final Apollo lunar landing. Cernan is the eleventh person to walk on the Moon, and, as the last person to enter the lunar module, the “last man on the moon.”

Roger Chaffee
b. 2-15-1935; Grand Rapids, MI
d. 1-27-1967; Cape Kennedy, FL

US Navy Commander Roger Chaffee was an astronaut in the Apollo program. Chaffee died with fellow astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Ed White during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission.

Christoph Clavius
b. 3-25-1538; Bamburg, Germany
d. 2-12-1612; Rome

Christoph Clavius was a Jesuit priest, mathematician and astronomer who developed the modern Gregorian calendar. Galileo visited Clavius to discuss the observations made with the telescope though Clavius held firm to the idea of a geocentric solar system where everything rotates around the Earth.

Clavius Crater (58º24'0"S 14º24'0"W), one of the largest formations on the Moon, is named for Christoph Clavius, and Space Odyssey series by Arthur C. Clarke the lunar settlement is named Clavius Base.