Margaretha Kirch

Margaretha Kirch (b. ca. 1703, d. after 1744) was a German astronomer.
She was the daughter of the astronomers Gottfried Kirch and Maria Margarethe Kirch and the sister of Christfried Kirch. She and her sister Christine Kirch were educated in astronomy from the age of ten and worked as the assistants of their brother. Kirch did the calculations and assisted in the observations for Christfried Kirch.
Few details are known about her life. She was only seven years old when her father died and never married.
Like her sister Christine, she was taught astronomy at the age of 10 and both initially assisted her brother Christfried with his observations. Margaretha later made observations of the weather and the starry sky, which she recorded in a weather observation diary.
On 3 January 1744 she discovered the Great Comet C / 1743 X1 and, using a 2-foot and a 6-foot telescope, led daily observations and measurements of it in her watch book until 25 February 1744.
After the comet had passed the sun, Margaretha observed and drew a streaky splitting of the comet's tail on March 5, which was only observed on the following four days by well-known astronomers such as Joseph-Nicolas Delisle and Gottfried Heinsius in Saint Petersburg, as well as Jean-Philippe de Chéseaux in Lausanne. In particular, her observation of March 7th is also recorded in an engraving.