Monthly Archives: April 2015

Goodbye, MESSENGER!

I made this (hastily) for MESSENGER’s final pass around Mercury and impact just now.  Few spacecraft have dealt with heat o’ the sun and winter’s rages like this one! It has really been an impressive mission. The Cymbeline quote is all the more appropriate given that MESSENGER’s final resting place is near Shakespeare basin.

Posted in Extra Credit

“So You Want to Do Research”

I recently came across a brief article entitled “So You Want to Do Research” in the December 1943 issue of Pro Tem, a Radcliffe College campus publication.  Written by Dr. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, the column offers some advice to students considering a career in research and describes some of the astronomer’s views on the process of science.  Payne-Gaposchkin describes […]

Posted in Extra Credit, Reflections

Annie Jump Cannon in Her Own Words

I’ve been poking around the Harvard Library’s digital archives quite a bit this week, preparing for a “Genius Day” workshop I’m leading next month with the Institute for Educational Advancement.  The focus of the workshop is Annie Jump Cannon, an astronomer famous for developing the stellar classification scheme still used today and for personally classifying […]

Posted in Extra Credit, Reflections