A web-documentary rehabilitating the story of five women astronomers who
were in charge of discovering, calculating, classifying and
mapping parts of the cosmos and who do not get the recognition they deserve.
STAR IDENTIFICATION NAME:
ASTRONOMER:
TYPE:
DATE:
ABOUT
PER ASPERA AD ASTRA
(latin. “through hardships to the stars)
is a web-documentary telling the story of 5 women astronomers
who were in charge of discovering, calculating, classifying and
mapping the cosmos between 1879 and 1979.
This project aims to rehabilitate the crucial contribution made
by women in STEM.
In the early days, before the word computer was used to describe
a machine, it was in fact used to describe a person, mostly
women, who made all calculations and observations by hand.
The "Harvard Computers" strongly contributed to astronomy and
science by discovering many galaxies and establishing the
stellar classification system still in use today.
Nowadays, however, we only speak very little about these five
women; their work remains unknown and their discoveries have
often been attributed to the men who employed them.