《玻璃底片上的宇宙》内容简介
十九世纪七十年代，哈佛天文台是最早雇用女性担任计算员的机构。起初，这些女计算员来自天文台常驻天文学家的妻子、姐妹和女儿，她们计算和解译男同事夜晚观测的结果。随后，越来越多的女子学院毕业生加入其中。她们见证了摄影术与光谱学兴起的时代，工作内容从计算转向研究“玻璃底片上的宇宙”——通过天体照相定格在玻璃底片上的星星；利用这些底片分析恒星光谱、进行恒星分类、编纂星表、发现新星和变星，并找到一种通过星光测量太空中距离的方法。
这是一个有关哈佛天文台历史上赞助人和天文学家的故事，也是一部十九世纪中期到二十世纪中期的天文学史。作者通过日记、信件和回忆录等大量材料为我们精确还原了哈佛天文台与近现代天文学发现史上的一些重要现场，以及背后许多不曾为人知晓的点滴。在这个故事中，我们回到了爱德华·皮克林与哈洛·沙普利任职哈佛天文台台长的时代，亲历了天文台从美国马萨诸塞州到秘鲁再到南非的观测活动与玻璃底片库的扩充，见证了安娜·德雷伯和凯瑟琳·布鲁斯两位女性赞助人对天文观测和研究的慷慨解囊，更沉浸于威廉明娜·弗莱明、安妮·坎农、亨丽埃塔·莱维特、安东尼娅·莫里和塞西莉亚·佩恩等女天文学家的职业生涯中——她们创造了历史并影响至今。
著者
（美）达娃·索贝尔，著有《经度》《伽利略的女儿》和《一星一世界》等书，曾任《纽约时报》科学记者，长期为《纽约客》《奥杜邦》《发现》和《哈佛杂志》撰稿。她曾荣获美国国家科学委员会“个人公共服务奖”，波士顿科学博物馆“布拉德福德·沃什波恩奖”以及多项写作奖。
译者
肖明波，美国普渡大学博士，大学教师。他博览群书且藏书颇丰，翻译态度认真、功底扎实。近年发表学术论文六十余篇、读书类文章二十余篇，译有《经度》《一星一世界》《反叛的科学家》《哈钦斯的大学》《通信系统仿真与无线应用》《信息论、学习与推理算法》等十余种书。
A brief introduction to the Universe on Glass Negatives
In the 1870s, the Harvard Observatory was one of the first institutions to hire women as calculators. At first, the women were the wives, sisters and daughters of the observatory's resident astronomers, who calculated and interpreted the night observations of their male colleagues. Subsequently, more and more women's college graduates joined them. They witnessed the rise of photography and spectroscopy, and their work shifted from computation to the study of the "universe on glass plate" - stars on glass plate by astrophotography; These plates were used to analyze stellar spectra, classify stars, compile star catalogs, discover new and variable stars, and find a way to measure distances in space by starlight.
This is the story of the patron and astronomer of the Harvard Observatory, and a history of astronomy from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. Through a large number of materials such as diaries, letters and memoirs, the author accurately restores for us some important scenes in the history of Harvard Observatory and modern astronomy discovery, as well as many unknown bits behind it. In this story, we travel back to the days of Edward Pickering and Harlow Shapley as directors of the Harvard Observatory, witness the expansion of the observatory's library of glass negatives from Massachusetts to Peru to South Africa, witness the generosity of two female patrons, Anna Draper and Catherine Bruce, to astronomical observation and research. Immerse yourself in the careers of female astronomers such as Wilhelmina Fleming, Anne Cannon, Henrietta Levitt, Antonia Mori and Cecilia Payne - women who made history and are still influential today.
author
Dava Sobel, author of Longitude, Galileo's Daughter, and One Star, One World, is a former science correspondent for The New York Times and a longtime contributor to The New Yorker, Audubon, Discovery, and Harvard Magazine. She has received the National Science Board Award for Personal Public Service, the Bradford Washburn Award from the Museum of Science in Boston, and several writing awards.
translator
Xiao Mingbo, PhD, University teacher, Purdue University, USA. He is well read and has a large collection of books, a serious translation attitude and a solid foundation. In recent years, he has published more than 60 academic papers and more than 20 reading articles, and translated more than 10 books such as Longitude, One Star, One World, Rebel Scientist, Hutchins' University, Communication System Simulation and Wireless Applications, Information Theory, Learning and Reasoning Algorithms.
