The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the StarsPenguin, 31. okt. 2017 - 352 síður From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dava Sobel, the "inspiring" (People), little-known true story of women's landmark contributions to astronomy A New York Times Book Review Notable Book Named one of the best books of the year by NPR, The Economist, Smithsonian, Nature, and NPR's Science Friday Nominated for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award "A joy to read.” —The Wall Street Journal In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or “human computers,” to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. At the outset this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of the resident astronomers, but soon the female corps included graduates of the new women's colleges—Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the ladies turned from computation to studying the stars captured nightly on glass photographic plates. The “glass universe” of half a million plates that Harvard amassed over the ensuing decades—through the generous support of Mrs. Anna Palmer Draper, the widow of a pioneer in stellar photography—enabled the women to make extraordinary discoveries that attracted worldwide acclaim. They helped discern what stars were made of, divided the stars into meaningful categories for further research, and found a way to measure distances across space by starlight. Their ranks included Williamina Fleming, a Scottish woman originally hired as a maid who went on to identify ten novae and more than three hundred variable stars; Annie Jump Cannon, who designed a stellar classification system that was adopted by astronomers the world over and is still in use; and Dr. Cecilia Helena Payne, who in 1956 became the first ever woman professor of astronomy at Harvard—and Harvard’s first female department chair. Elegantly written and enriched by excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, The Glass Universe is the hidden history of the women whose contributions to the burgeoning field of astronomy forever changed our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe. |
Efni
Baileys Pictures from Peru | 71 |
PART | 87 |
Lingua Franca | 123 |
Miss Leavitts Relationship | 141 |
The Pickering Fellows | 159 |
PART THREE | 179 |
Miss Cannons Prize | 232 |
CHAPTER FIFTEEN | 249 |
Appreciation | 267 |
Aðrar útgáfur - View all
The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the ... Dava Sobel Takmarkað sýnishorn - 2016 |
The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the ... Dava Sobel Takmarkað sýnishorn - 2016 |
The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the ... Dava Sobel Engin sýnishorn í boði - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
Annals Annie Cannon Annie Jump Cannon Antonia Maury Arequipa assistants asteroid Astrophysical award Boyden Station brightness Bruce telescope Cambridge Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Cepheids comet committee computers director discovery distances Draper classification eclipse Edward Pickering Fleming's Fraunhofer funds galaxy Gaposchkin glass plates globular clusters graduate Harlow Shapley Harvard College Observatory Harvard Observatory Henrietta Leavitt Henry Draper Memorial Henry Norris Russell Hertzsprung Huggins hundred hydrogen Journal letter Lowell Magellanic Clouds magnitude Maria Mitchell Maury's medal Milky Miss Ames Miss Bruce Miss Cannon Miss Leavitt Miss Maury Miss Payne Miss Payne's Mount Wilson Nantucket nebulae night nova orbits Peru photometry Pickering Fellow Pickering's planet Professor published Radcliffe Royal Astronomical Society Shapley's Solar Union Solon Bailey southern spectral lines spectrum spirals staff stellar spectra thousand tion took University Variable Star Observers variable stars Vassar William Cranch Bond Williamina Fleming woman women wrote York