The Glass Universe

by Dava Sobel

  CHAPTER FOUR: Stella Nova

  Edward Pickering reported Mrs. Fleming’s first nova discovery, “A New Star in Norma,” in the pages of Astronomy and Astro-Physics.

  Pickering’s correspondence with Antonia Maury, also with the Reverend Mytton Maury, is held in the Harvard University Archives.

  CHAPTER FIVE: Bailey’s Pictures from Peru

  Annie Jump Cannon was a lifelong diarist and prolific letter writer. Her diaries, scrapbooks, and other papers, including the libretti she collected for the many opera performances she attended, are held in the Harvard University Archives.

  Antonia Maury’s “Verses to the Vassar Dome,” written in 1896, were printed in Popular Astronomy in 1923.

  Edmond Halley summoned astronomers to observe the transit of Venus with his announcement, in Latin, of “A New Method of Determining the Parallax of the Sun,” published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1716.

  CHAPTER SIX: Mrs. Fleming’s Title

  The handwritten Journal of Williamina Paton Fleming, part of the Harvard “Chest of 1900,” is held in the University Archives and can be read online at http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/3007384.

  President Edward B. Knobel’s comments pertaining to the presentation of Edward Pickering’s second gold medal were published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in February 1901.

  CHAPTER SEVEN: Pickering’s “Harem”

  The correspondence between Andrew Carnegie and Edward Pickering, also the letters exchanged by Louise Carnegie and Williamina Fleming, are held in the Harvard University Archives.

  CHAPTER EIGHT: Lingua Franca

  Herbert Hall Turner commented on the “marvellous” achievements of Williamina Fleming in the obituary he wrote for her, which was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1911.

  Edward Pickering’s diary of his trip to Pasadena to attend the 1910 meeting of the Solar Union is held in the Harvard University Archives, and was transcribed for publication in Southern California Quarterly by historian Howard Plotkin.

  CHAPTER NINE: Miss Leavitt’s Relationship

  Frank Schlesinger of the Allegheny Observatory collated the responses of all the astronomers polled after the 1910 meeting in Pasadena and published their comments in the Astrophysical Journal under the heading “Correspondence Concerning the Classification of Stellar Spectra.”

  CHAPTER TEN: The Pickering Fellows

  Harlow Shapley reminisced about his life experiences in a breezy memoir called Through Rugged Ways to the Stars, published in 1969. He dedicated the book “To the memory of Henry Norris Russell.”

  Margaret Harwood’s letters to Annie Jump Cannon, Edward Pickering, and Harlow Shapley are preserved in the Harvard University Archives along with other materials pertaining to the observatory, but most of her private papers and photographs are held at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Cambridge.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN: Shapley’s “Kilo-Girl” Hours

  As chairman of the Astronomical Fellowship Committee, Annie Jump Cannon chronicled the activities of current and past Pickering Fellows in her write-ups for the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Annual Report. These can be read online, courtesy of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory/ NASA Astrophysics Data System, at http://www.adsabs.harvard.edu.

  CHAPTER TWELVE: Miss Payne’s Thesis

  Cecilia Payne recounted her life experiences in a treatise she named “The Dyer’s Hand.” It was published in 1984, along with admiring essays by several of her colleagues, in Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections, edited by her daughter, Katherine Haramundanis.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Observatory Pinafore

  Helen Sawyer Hogg recalled the events that shaped her astronomy career when she spoke at a commemorative symposium held August 25–29, 1986, in Cambridge. The proceedings were later published as a book, The Harlow Shapley Symposium on Globular Cluster Systems in Galaxies, edited by Jonathan E. Grindlay and A. G. Davis Philip.

  The proceedings of another symposium, organized in 2000 to mark the one hundredth anniversary of Cecilia Payne’s birth, were published in The Starry Universe: The Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Centenary, edited by A. G. Davis Philip and Rebecca A. Koopmann. This volume includes lyrics sung by “Josephine” and other characters from The Observatory Pinafore.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Miss Cannon’s Prize

  The comments of Radcliffe dean Bernice Brown and Astronomer Royal Sir Frank Dyson at the opening of the 1932 IAU General Assembly were published in Transactions of the International Astronomical Union, volume 4.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Lifetimes of Stars

  The American Astronomical Society executive council’s resolution regarding recognition of Henrietta Leavitt, including the officers’ wish to see the Cepheid period-luminosity relation renamed the Leavitt law, was published in the AAS Newsletter for May/June 2009. The new term originated in 2008, during a conference held at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to celebrate the centenary of Miss Leavitt’s discovery. Information about the conference, with links to all the presentations, can be found at https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/events/2008/leavitt.

  SOME HIGHLIGHTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY

  1839 Observatory established by Harvard Corporation at Dana House. William Cranch Bond appointed astronomical observer.

  1843 Great Comet’s visit inspires citizens of Boston and environs to fund the purchase of a large telescope for the observatory.

  1844 Observatory moves to Summerhouse Hill, where a suitable foundation is laid for the new 15-inch telescope.

  1845 First Harvard College Observatory Visiting Committee is headed by John Quincy Adams.

  1846 George Phillips Bond appointed assistant observer. First annual report issued.

  1847 The “Great Refractor,” a 15-inch telescope with a lens crafted in Munich, is mounted in the new observatory building.

  1848 The Bonds discover the eighth moon of Saturn and name it Hyperion. Edward Bromfield Phillips bequeaths $100,000 to the observatory, to pay salaries and all operating expenses.

  1849 Statutes make the observatory a department of the university, and change the elder Bond’s title to director.

  1850 First photograph of a star, Vega, taken by George Phillips Bond and John Adams Whipple. Jenny Lind sees a meteor fireball through the Great Refractor.

  1856 First volume of the Annals of the Astronomical Observatory at Harvard College published.

  1859 At death of William Cranch Bond, George Phillips Bond becomes second director.

  1866 Joseph Winlock appointed as third director.

  1868 Arthur Searle joins staff as assistant.

  1870 Meridian circle, an instrument for ascertaining star positions, is built for Winlock in London and installed at Harvard. William Rogers takes charge of meridian observations for astrometry (star positions).

  1875 At Joseph Winlock’s death, his daughter Anna joins computing staff. Miss Rhoda G. Saunders is hired as the first female computer from outside the observatory family.

  1876 Arthur Searle serves as interim director.

  1877 Edward Charles Pickering takes office as fourth director, initiates his program of stellar photometry.

  1879 Williamina Fleming is hired as a maid in the Pickering household. Edward Pickering introduces the meridian photometer for judging the brightness of stars.

  1880 Edward Pickering publishes his five-type classification of variable stars.

  1881 Williamina Fleming becomes a permanent member of the observatory staff.

  1882 Edward Pickering and his brother William, of MIT, experiment with lenses for photographing the night sky. Director Pickering issues a call for volunteers, especially women, t
o observe variable stars and share their results with Harvard.

  1883 Harvard Observatory becomes the designated dispenser of information regarding cometary and other discoveries, made by observers anywhere, and telegraphed to observatories everywhere.

  1884 Results of first photometry study published in the Annals, vol. 14. Edward Pickering divides entire sky into forty-eight equal regions known as the Harvard Standard Regions.

  1885 Bache Fund grant provides the 8-inch telescope required for Pickering’s program of nightly sky photography. Williamina Fleming begins to measure and compute stellar magnitudes from photographs.

  1886 Anna Palmer Draper provides funding for photography of stellar spectra, with the aim of realizing the unfulfilled dream of her late husband, Dr. Henry Draper. Edward Pickering receives the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in recognition of the Harvard Photometry.

  1887 Harvard acquires the Boyden Fund to build a high-altitude observatory. William Pickering joins the observatory staff Edward Pickering is named the Paine Professor of Practical Astronomy; Arthur Searle assumes the title of Phillips Professor.

  1888 Antonia Maury joins the staff of female computers, begins to study the spectra of bright northern stars.

  1889 Solon Bailey begins observations in Peru, aided by his wife, Ruth E. Poulter Bailey. Catherine Wolfe Bruce gives $50,000 for construction of a 24-inch astrophotographic telescope Edward Pickering discovers the first spectroscopic binary; Antonia Maury finds the second one.

  1890 “The Draper Catalogue of Stellar Spectra” is published in the Annals, vol. 27, with classifications made by Williamina Fleming. Solon Bailey establishes Harvard’s Boyden Station at Arequipa.

  1891 William Pickering takes over in Arequipa as Boyden Station director. Arthur Searle begins teaching astronomy classes for women.

  1893 Solon Bailey resumes charge of Boyden Station in Peru. Glass plates are moved to new fireproof Brick Building Williamina Fleming prepares “A Field for Woman’s Work in Astronomy” for presentation at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago; discovers her first nova on plates from Arequipa Bruce telescope sees first light at Cambridge.

  1895 Edward Pickering institutes the Harvard College Observatory Circular to describe news of the observatory, beginning with Williamina Fleming’s discovery of Nova Carinae (her second nova) from photographs taken at Arequipa; her third such discovery, Nova Centaurus, follows a few months later. Henrietta Swan Leavitt volunteers at the observatory Solon Bailey discovers many variables within certain star clusters of the Southern Hemisphere.

  1896 Annie Jump Cannon joins the observatory as a research assistant, commences her study of the spectra of bright southern stars. Bruce telescope arrives at Arequipa.

  1897 Antonia Maury publishes “The Spectra of Bright Stars” in the Annals, vol. 28, and is acknowledged as the author on the title page.

  1898 National professional organization of astronomers, later named the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, established at a meeting held at Harvard. Edward Pickering introduces Harvard College Observatory Bulletins to augment the telegraphic announcements with details sent by mail.

  1899 Williamina Fleming given Harvard title as curator of astronomical photographs. William Pickering discovers a ninth satellite of Saturn, Phoebe.

  1900 Harvard “Chest of 1900” time-capsule project invites Edward Pickering and Williamina Fleming to chronicle their daily activities. Catherine Wolfe Bruce dies.

  1901 Edward Pickering receives his second gold medal from the Royal Astronomical Society, for variable star studies and advances in astrophotography. Annie Cannon publishes catalogue of bright southern stars in the Annals, vol. 28.

  1903 Annie Cannon publishes her “Provisional Catalogue of Variable Stars” in the Annals, vol. 48. After an absence of several years, Henrietta Leavitt returns as a full-time employee Edward Pickering issues “Photographic Map of the Entire Sky.”

  1905 Henrietta Leavitt notices an inordinate number of variables in the Magellanic Clouds. Edward Pickering elected president of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America.

  1906 Edward Pickering and Henrietta Leavitt embark on a large-scale determination of photographic magnitudes. Williamina Fleming elected to honorary membership in the Royal Astronomical Society.

  1907 Annie Cannon publishes her “Second Catalogue of Variable Stars” in the Annals, vol. 55. Williamina Fleming publishes “A Photographic Study of Variable Stars” in the Annals, vol. 47 Margaret Harwood joins the staff.

  1908 Edward Pickering publishes the Revised Harvard Photometry in the Annals, vols. 50 and 54. Solon Bailey compiles a whole-sky catalogue of 263 bright clusters and nebulae in the Annals, vol. 60 Henrietta Leavitt publishes her discovery of “1777 Variables in the Magellanic Clouds” in the Annals, vol. 60 Edward Pickering receives the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal.

  1909 Solon Bailey reconnoiters potential new observatory sites in South Africa.

  1910 Foreign astronomers attend meeting of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, held at Harvard. International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research, meeting in Pasadena, adopts Harvard’s Draper classification system developed by Annie Cannon.

  1911 Williamina Fleming dies. American Association of Variable Star Observers is founded by William Tyler Olcott, one of Pickering’s volunteer contributors.

  1912 Harvard Bulletin switches from handwritten and mimeographed production to printed format. Edward Pickering and Annie Cannon demonstrate the brightness of B stars Henrietta Leavitt publishes her “period-luminosity relation. Margaret Harwood becomes first Astronomical Fellow of the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America renamed the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Annie Cannon elected treasurer of AAS, its first female officer.

  1913 Henry Norris Russell and Ejnar Hertzsprung independently arrive at the significant relation between absolute magnitude and spectral type (later named the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram).

  1914 Annie Cannon becomes honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society. Margaret Harwood investigates the light curve of the asteroid Eros Anna Palmer Draper dies.

  1915 Margaret Harwood is named director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory on Nantucket.

  1916 Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association establishes the Edward C. Pickering Astronomical Fellowship for Women. Solon Bailey completes a provisional catalogue of 76 globular clusters in the Annals, vol. 76.

  1918 First of nine volumes of the greatly expanded Henry Draper Catalogue is published in the Annals, beginning with vol. 91.

  1919 Edward Pickering dies. Solon Bailey serves as interim director.

  1920 Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis debate the scale of the universe.

  1921 Harlow Shapley is named fifth director. Henrietta Leavitt dies Harlow Shapley and Annie Cannon explore the relation between spectral type and magnitude.

  1922 International Astronomical Union adopts Harvard’s Draper stellar classification, representing the work of Williamina Fleming, Antonia Maury, and especially Annie Jump Cannon.

  1923 Adelaide Ames enrolls as Harvard’s first graduate student in astronomy. Cecilia Payne arrives from England as Harvard’s second graduate student in astronomy Harvard Reprints series initiated to disseminate staff members’ published articles in professional journals.

  1924 Harlow Shapley issues the first in a series of papers detailing the distance, size, and structure of the Magellanic Clouds. Ninth volume of the Henry Draper Memorial is published in the Annals, vol. 99.

  1925 Harlow Shapley introduces a new publication series of books, the Harvard Monographs, beginning with Cecilia Payne’s doctoral dissertation, Stellar Atmospheres.

  1926 Harvard Bulletin switches to monthly publication, each
issue containing several items of interest. Harlow Shapley introduces Harvard Announcement Cards for news (of comets, novae, asteroids) between issues of the Bulletin.

  1927 Number of known variable stars reaches five thousand, more than four thousand of which are Harvard discoveries, found on the glass plates. Harlow Shapley and Helen Sawyer complete new catalogue of globular clusters, their number increased to 95 Boyden Station moves from South America to South Africa.

  1929 Priscilla Fairfield marries Bart Bok.

  1930 Helen Sawyer and Frank Hogg are married.

  1931 Solon Bailey dies in June, Edward King in September. Annie Cannon receives the Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences.

  1932 Adelaide Ames dies. International Astronomical Union meets at Harvard.

  1933 Antonia Maury publishes “The Spectral Changes of Beta Lyrae” in the Annals, vol. 84. Several Harvard telescopes move to rural site at Oak Ridge.

  1934 Cecilia Payne and Sergei Gaposchkin elope. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin wins the Annie Jump Cannon Prize.

  1935 Harlow Shapley inaugurates graduate summer program in astronomy and astrophysics.

  1939 Annie Cannon finds Harvard’s ten thousandth variable star.

  1941 Annie Cannon dies.

  1943 Antonia Maury receives the Annie Jump Cannon Prize.

  1946 An Observatory Council, including Bart Bok, Donald Menzel, and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, is appointed to advise the director on policies and programs.

  1949 Margaret Walton Mayall completes the Henry Draper Extension, published as the Annie J. Cannon Memorial Volume in the Annals, vol. 112.

  1950 Helen Sawyer Hogg wins the Annie Jump Cannon Prize.

  1952 Antonia Maury dies. Harlow Shapley retires Donald Menzel becomes acting director.

  1954 Donald Menzel officially named sixth director of the observatory.

  1955 Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory moves from Washington, D.C., to Cambridge to collaborate with the Harvard College Observatory.