Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin is acclaimed as the greatest woman astronomer of all time. In this book, her own story of her professional life, work, and scientific achievements is augmented by the personal recollections of her daughter, Katherine Haramundanis. Other highlights include a scientific appreciation by Jesse Greenstein, a historical essay by Peggy Kidwell and, new to this edition, an introduction by Virginia Trimble. Payne-Gaposchkin's overwhelming love for astronomy was her personal guiding light, and her attitude and approach have lessons for all. She received many prestigious awards for her outstanding contributions to science. In 1956, she became the first woman Professor at Harvard University, as well as being the first woman departmental chair. This book will interest both astronomers and those studying the advancement of the position and status of women in society.
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"...a very welcome addition to any library....A must read for all astronomy enthusiasts and students, and highly recommended for all woman interested in science." Choice
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Acclaimed as the greatest woman astronomer of all time, Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin's overwhelming love for astronomy was her personal guiding light. Her own story of her life, work and scientific achievements is augmented by contributions from her daughter as well as others.
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This review is from: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections (Paperback)
I saw the previous review and had to write a real review for those interested in this book. The book has effectively four introductory essays by Virginia Trimble, Jesse Greenstein, Peggy Kidwell, and Katherine Haramundanis. Each of these essays are well worth reading on their own and they place Cecilia Payne, later Payne-Gaposchkin by marriage, in context. I will refer to her as "CPG" from now on.
The part of the book written by CPG, "The Dyer's Hand" is a memoir of growing up in England, being a woman scientist at Cambridge, and moving to Harvard to become an astronomer when being a woman still made the directors of the Harvard Observatory immediate think of placing you in the pool of woman calculators -- underpaid and not considered on the scientific level of the men. CPG helped change that. She applied the then new ideas of Saha to the analysis of the sun's spectrum and realized that the sun was made up of a huge amount of hydrogen compared to helium and the other elements. Up to the publication of her thesis in the 1920's no one really understood that stars were mostly hydrogen and helium. Earlier observations had been incorrectly interpreted as showing that the sun had the same abundances of the elements as the earth. CPG helped force astronomers to revise their stellar models -- the first step to truly understanding the stars and the composition of the universe. Her working life spanned roughly 50 years and she devoted her life to astronomy even though it was not until the 1950's that Harvard woke up and gave her a job title other than "assistant" to the director of the observatory. She helped create our understanding of how stars work. She was a gifted writer. This is an amazing life and the autobiography is necessary reading.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
If the scheme of philosophy which we now rear on the scientific advances of Einstein, Bohr, Rutherford and others is doomed to fail in the next thirty years, it is not to be laid to their charge that we gone astray. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
standard photometry, galactic novae, photographic magnitudes, stellar spectra, variable stars, ionization theory, eclipsing stars, photographic photometry, stellar atmospheres, marginal appearances, woman astronomer, plate stacks, high luminosity, spectral classification, interstellar absorption, galactic structure, cepheid variables, hottest stars, standard regions Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Harvard College Observatory, United States, Harvard University Archives, Miss Cannon, Shapley Directorial Papers, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Miss Leavitt, Henry Draper, Russell Papers, Princeton University Library, Miss Maury, Harlow Shapley, Harvard Observatory, Miss Payne, Royal Astronomical Society, Henry Norris Russell, New York, Newnham College, Adelaide Ames, Astrophysical Journal, Cambridge University, Donald Menzel, Sergei Gaposchkin, Lick Observatory, Radcliffe College New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
If the scheme of philosophy which we now rear on the scientific advances of Einstein, Bohr, Rutherford and others is doomed to fail in the next thirty years, it is not to be laid to their charge that we gone astray. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
standard photometry, galactic novae, photographic magnitudes, stellar spectra, variable stars, ionization theory, eclipsing stars, photographic photometry, stellar atmospheres, marginal appearances, woman astronomer, plate stacks, high luminosity, spectral classification, interstellar absorption, galactic structure, cepheid variables, hottest stars, standard regions Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Harvard College Observatory, United States, Harvard University Archives, Miss Cannon, Shapley Directorial Papers, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Miss Leavitt, Henry Draper, Russell Papers, Princeton University Library, Miss Maury, Harlow Shapley, Harvard Observatory, Miss Payne, Royal Astronomical Society, Henry Norris Russell, New York, Newnham College, Adelaide Ames, Astrophysical Journal, Cambridge University, Donald Menzel, Sergei Gaposchkin, Lick Observatory, Radcliffe College New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 27
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- Hercule Poirot by Agatha Christie in Front Matter
- Bartlett's Familiar Quotations Hb by John Bartlett in Front Matter
- Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare on page 156
- Romeo and Juliet (Simply Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare in Front Matter
- Romeo And Juliet (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Saddleback Classics) by William Shakespeare in Front Matter
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- E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Stars of Heaven by Clifford A. Pickover on page 56, and Back Matter
- The Stars of Heaven by Clifford A. Pickover on page 56, and Back Matter
- The Book of the Cosmos by Dennis Danielson on page 389, and Back Matter
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