“I simply can't stop observing when thinking that one can never know when the nature will show us something unusual,” Hisako Koyama wrote in 1981.
That dedication to observation earned the amatuer astronomer recognition from the professional community, most recently in an article published in the journal Space Weather by Delores Knipp of the University of Colorado Boulder.
In the article, Knipp outlines Koyama’s career, during which she sketched nearly 40 years of sunspots, including the largest sunspot of the 20th century in 1947. Sunspots -- dark spots on the surface of the sun caused by powerful magnetic fields -- are important to scientists because the radiation and gusts of energy they produce can impact humans and satellites traveling in space. Koyama’s record is especially important because its consistency and thoroughness helped provide a backbone for a recent effort by scientists to recalibrate a 400-year record of sunspot activity, going back to Galileo.
Koyama served as a staff member at the National Museum of Nature and Science and published her findings at the urging of fellow scientists, all at a time when a high-school education was the best a girl in Japan could expect, Knipp said.
“How many young ‘Ms. Koyamas’ might there be in today's world, just on the verge of scientific contribution and discovery, if only for a nudge of encouragement in the right direction?” Knipp writes. “We hope this manuscript describing Ms. Koyama's work serves as encouragement and inspiration for future scientists.”