Glass Firmament: How Harvard Observatory Women Measured the Stars
14.99 €
The only thing available 3
Glass Firmament: How Harvard Observatory Women Measured the Stars
14.99 €
In the mid-19th century, the Harvard Observatory began hiring women as calculators to interpret the nightly astronomical observations performed by men. At first, these were the wives, sisters, and daughters of the observatory's staff astronomers, and then they were joined by graduates of women's colleges. When photography became part of astronomical practice, women, in addition to calculations, began to study the stars captured at night on glass photographic plates.
The "Glass Universe" of half a million photographic plates, accumulated at Harvard over decades, allowed women to make remarkable discoveries that received worldwide recognition. They helped to understand what stars are made of, classify them, and find a way to determine interstellar distances. The book contains a lot of interesting facts, it has many excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs. In fact, this is the story of women whose contribution to science changed our understanding of the stars and the place of humanity in the Universe.
The "Glass Universe" of half a million photographic plates, accumulated at Harvard over decades, allowed women to make remarkable discoveries that received worldwide recognition. They helped to understand what stars are made of, classify them, and find a way to determine interstellar distances. The book contains a lot of interesting facts, it has many excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs. In fact, this is the story of women whose contribution to science changed our understanding of the stars and the place of humanity in the Universe.
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author