Volunteers needed to preserve astronomical history

[MargaritaMc]

Volunteers needed to preserve astronomical history and promote discovery

Before iPhones and laptops there were human computers, some of whom worked at the Harvard College Observatory. Women like Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Williamina Fleming, and Annie Jump Cannon made some of the most important discoveries in astronomy in the early 20th century. Their work was even featured in the TV series Cosmos, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Now, Harvard is seeking your help to transcribe the logbooks that record the century-long observations behind (and beyond) their discoveries.
... The telescope logbooks record vital information associated with a 100-year-long effort to record images of the sky. By transcribing logbook text to put those historical observations in context, volunteers can help to unlock hidden discoveries.

To participate in this new "citizen scientist" initiative, interested parties are invited to sign up at https://transcription.si.edu/browse?filter=owner:11

Click to view full size image

A sample logbook page. Harvard is seeking volunteers to help transcribe these entries as part of the Digital Access to a Sky Century at Harvard (DASCH) preservation project Credit: Harvard College Observatory

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-09-volunteers ... y.html#jCp

Margarita

[geckzilla]

I did this the other day. Rather than asking people to work on small bits at a time, they offer the entire page at a time. It's daunting at first but it's useful to see context and you can stop in the middle or whenever you feel like.

[MargaritaMc]

I did this the other day. Rather than asking people to work on small bits at a time, they offer the entire page at a time. It's daunting at first but it's useful to see context and you can stop in the middle or whenever you feel like.

Have you seen Williamina Paton Fleming's journal? I got a pdf copy from Harvard library. I hope it gets transcribed. (Sadly not by me, my typing ability is minimal nowadays.)
M

[geckzilla]

You know, I don't know whose journal I was transcribing. It seems that more than one person is able to write in each journal and it just depends on who is tending the observatory on a given night. There is a column where they write their initials in and unless you have researched it you wouldn't have any way to know whose initials those are. In fact I found the script illegible and could not read the initials. The rest is mostly legible but even though I learned cursive when I was in elementary school it seems there is a skill to reading it in various, decorative forms that I haven't exercised much and is nearly lost to me. In a few generations I wonder if anyone other than skilled specialists will be adept at reading cursive handwriting.

[MargaritaMc]

This one is her private journal from http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/fleming.html

http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/mobile/i ... 007384&n=1 is a direct link to the facsimile.

A fascinating mix of her scientific work and saying about getting so exhausted with having to do her housework on her one day off a week. Beautiful handwriting - but I know what you mean, even tho it's beautiful it is difficult for me to read easily.

M

[geckzilla]

My son Edward, now a junior in the Mass. Inst. of Technology, knows little or nothing of the value of money and, therefore, has the idea but that everything should be forthcoming on demand.

I don't suppose some things will ever change.

[MargaritaMc]

And then she moves straight on from this about her son (114 years ago and totally recognisable!) to writing details of her morning's work at the Observatory:

The first part of this morning at the Observatory was devoted to the revision of Miss Le[a?]mons work on the classification of the bright Southern stars, which is now in preparation for the printer. The table giving the classification and the general table of stars arranged in the order of right ascension were assigned their places in the volume and several pages of the remarks on the individual stars were read, critiqued, corrected, or questioned.

The work already done in the classification of the spectra of the faint stars for the Southern Draper Catalogue next came under discussion. It is proposed to divide this work into four zones, having declinations +90’ to +30’, +29’ to + 0’, -0’ to -29’, and -30’ to -90’, inclusive. The work of measurement is already well advanced, and we expect to accomplish much during the coming summer.

I think it's a marvellous historical document. I found the excerpt above at http://shareddiscoveries.wordpress.com/ ... aphs-1900/ but it seems that only the first page has been transcribed.

[geckzilla]

What was transcribed there as "Miss Le[a?]mon" is almost certainly a reference to Miss Cannon.