Dava Sobel, Writer; Former Science Reporter, The New York Times
In the 1880s, physicist and astronomer Edward Pickering invented a new system to photograph the sky that revolutionized our understanding of stars. His achievements in science relied on the work of more than 80 women—known as the Harvard Observatory “computers”—who analyzed and catalogued data from thousands of photographs. Dava Sobel will discuss the women’s significant contributions to astronomy, as well as Pickering’s visionary initiative to establish an observatory in Peru that expanded scientists’ notions of scale and space.
Lecture and Book Signing
Free and open to the public
Free event parking at 52 Oxford Street Garage.
Presented by the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments in collaboration with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Scale: A Matter of Perspective will be open to visitors following the lecture