Browse Projects
Project PHaEDRA - Annie Jump Cannon 18
At Harvard College Observatory (now the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), women computers studied glass plate photographs of the night sky. Here they catalogued stars, identifying variables, interpreting stellar spectra, counting galaxies, and measuring the vast distances in space. Several of them made game-changing discoveries in astronomy and astrophysics. In these books, follow the work of Annie Jump Cannon, who in 1901 devised a robust and elegant stellar classification scheme that astronomers still use today. Interested in historical women? Love astronomy? Help us transcribe the work of the Harvard Observatory's women computers and see which stars shine the brightest.
Project PHaEDRA - Cecilia H. Payne #4
At Harvard College Observatory (now the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), women studied over 130 years of the night sky, all preserved on glass plate photographs. Women computers catalogued stars, identified variables, interpreted stellar spectra, counted galaxies, and measured distances in space. Several of them made game-changing discoveries in astronomy and astrophysics. Interested in historical women? Love astronomy? Help us transcribe the work of the Harvard Observatory's women computers and see which stars shine the brightest. To learn more about the impact of the women computers, listen to an interview with Dava Sobel about her recently released book "Glass Universe" describing their legacy.
