Pioneering Women in Observatories

Women astrographic computers in Australian observatories

Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide Observatories participated in the Great Star Catalogue which began in 1887 and was completed in 1964, an endeavour to catalogue all the stars in the celestial sphere up to 11th magnitude using photography. As was directed by Greenwich and Paris Observatories, the astronomers in the antipodes employed women for the arduous task of measuring all the stars on the glass photographic plates, computing their positions and assembling the catalogue. These skilled women had the most star-rich sections of the Milky Way to contend with. Through case studies I will demonstrate that they were much more than ‘human computers’ and question who was making the critical decisions about the nature of stars.

Toner Stevenson is an honorary History affiliate in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney. She has a doctorate and researches the history of astronomy in Australia. A short film titled Human Computer produced by the Powerhouse Museum, several podcasts and a Biennale Artwork were based on her doctoral research into Australia’s participation in the Astrographic Catalogue. Toner was co-author of the Eclipse Chasers book published by CSIRO in 2023. Her extensive career in museums included Manager of Sydney Observatory. She is a member of the Royal Society (NSW) and former president of Sydney City Skywatchers. 

Women astronomical computers at Harvard College Observatory 

Many of the Harvard College Observatory’s female staff started out as lady computers, only to become bone fide astronomers with global reputations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Director Edward Pickering’s farsighted hiring practices, coupled with his commitment to stellar photography, opened extraordinary opportunities for women in the “glass universe” of several hundred thousand glass-plate astro-images still housed at Harvard. Some members of the team of women astronomical computers, notably Antonia Maury, Annie Jump Cannon, and Henrietta Leavitt, were alumnae of the newly founded women’s colleges. Others, including Williamina Fleming, brought only a high school education and their own native ability. They helped discern what stars are made of, divided the stars into meaningful categories still in use today, and built the first rung on the ladder that gauges distances across interstellar space.

Dava Sobel is the author of Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter, The Planets, A More Perfect Heaven, And the Sun Stood Still, The Glass Universe, and, most recently, The Elements of Marie Curie. A former science reporter for the New York Times, she received the Harrison Medal from the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in 2004, as well as numerous other awards and honors for her writing. Astronomers who admired her work paid her the compliment of naming an asteroid after her, 30935davasobel. In 2020 she introduced a monthly poetry column in Scientific American, called “Meter,” and continues to serve as its editor.

Please note: Dava will be joining us virtually for this event.