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Posted on May 16, 2021
Telescopes are the most recognizable tool in the astronomer’s toolkit, but equally important are the tools for recording astronomical data. In the 19th century, they included glass photographic plates, which captured snapshots of the night sky through the telescope, and notebooks for recording observations and measurements from the plates.
The 24-inch Bruce Doublet telescope installed in Arequipa, Peru. (Courtesy of Harvard College Observatory)
Left: Glass plate photograph taken in Arequipa in 1925. (Courtesy of Harvard). Right: Cover of Annie Jump Cannon’s notebook featuring ‘Observations in Arequipa.’ (Courtesy of Harvard (Image ID: phaedra2228))
Beginning in 1885, the Harvard College Observatory (now part of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) began an ambitious project to survey the entire night sky. Astronomers at Harvard’s central observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and its new observatory in Arequipa,
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The CfA is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a vibrant slice of the larger Boston metropolitan area, known for its excellent universities, colleges and public education, its world renowned medical facilities, a dynamic modern economy, a booming artistic community, passionate sports fans and diverse cultures, all within a two hour drive to great skiing, hiking in the White, Green or Berkshire mountains, and many Atlantic Ocean beaches. As a joint collaboration between Smithsonian and Harvard, the CfA can also offer CfA Fellows selected special privileges through both institutions.
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Astronomer Gerard Kuiper, who is best known for the region in the solar system that now bears his name, is regarded by many as the father of modern planetary science. Join A.S.Ganeshas he tells you about Kuiper and his many discoveries.
The Great Debate of 1920: how it changed astronomy
April 28, 2021 at 10:10 am
In 1920, astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis came together to take part in the Great Debate about the scale of the Universe. But what ultimately, was astronomy’s Great Debate about, and how did it change the way we look at the Universe?
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Harlow Shapley, a 34-year-old journalist-turned-astronomer, must have been nervous when he climbed the stage in the Baird Auditorium of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC on 26 April 1920. Facing him was a crowd of fellow scientists and lay people alike.
On stage after Shapley would be his opponent in the Great Debate, eminent astronomer Heber Curtis – a man 13 years his senior, more experienced and eloquent at speaking, and who disagreed with Shapley on just about everything.