Draper of his intent to carry out the work of her late husband Henry Draper-that of photographing the stars and determining their spectral classification. The process of making Harvard College Observatory the center of stellar photometry and discovery began in 1883, when Edward Pickering, the Observatory’s director, wrote to a woman named Mrs. In her recent book The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars(out December 6), Dava Sobel tells the story behind of these plates and the group of women who dedicated their lives to studying and interpreting the mysteries hidden in them. These plates are so scientifically and historically valuable that the Harvard Library is working to digitize them today. The Harvard College Observatory is home to over 500,000 glass photographic plates emblazoned with some of the most beautiful phenomena of our universe-star clusters, galaxies, novae, and nebulae.
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