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Helen Sawyer studied chemistry at Mount Holyoke, but two things made her switch to astronomy. First, as part of a class with Dr Anne Sewell, she viewed the total solar eclipse of 1925.

"The almost incredible beauty and grandeur of a total eclipse, tied me to astronomy for life."

Imo, every awestruck kid looking up at the sky during a total eclipse is a new astronomer being born. Here’s mine, back in 2017, at Manhattan Project National Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.