This biography is reprinted with permission from Melbourne Observatory’s Astrographic Women: Star Measurers and Computers by Dr Toner Stevenson, published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, Volume 26, Issue 2: 325 – 338 in 2023.
Born: 1887, Australia
Died: 1973
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: Victoria Sarah Noonan Murphy
Bill Neal has provided information about his grandmother, Vicki Noonan, who worked at Melbourne Observatory from 1907 to 1909. Noonan grew up in St Kilda and attended the Presentation Convent in Windsor. She was 20 when she commenced work at Melbourne Observatory and is known as ‘N’ in the Astrographic Catalogue. One of the archival documents shows that Vickie worked on 3 plates, each measured in September, October and November 1908 with ‘E.S.’ Eileen Sheldon, as her measuring partner. She also worked with Evelyn Hockin ‘E.H.’ and Muriel Heagney ‘M.H.’.
Bill Neal has an illustrated album that his grandmother kept from the years 1906 to 1910 where friends have made entries. Her album shows that she had a highly active social life and there are entries from her Melbourne Observatory colleagues Sheldon, Hockin and Heagney. Particularly insightful is this popular saying of the day, quoted by Sheldon: ‘Love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe’. It is not clear why Noonan resigned from Melbourne Observatory in 1909.
In 1912 at the age of 25, she married Doctor Thomas Murphy, many years her senior. They had ten children, two of whom, Alison and Brendan, attended the seminar held on 24 November 2014 for the 150th anniversary of Melbourne Observatory.