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Podcaster: Loretta Cannon for the AAS-HAD ; Guest: Dr. Sethanne Howard

Title: H’ad astra historia Episode 101: Women in Science History

Organization: Historical Astronomy Division, American Astronomical Society

Link: https://had.aas.org/

Description:

H’ad astra historia is the official podcast for the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society.  We’re here to share stories from and about the people who study the stars, planets, and the cosmos.  We’ll be hearing from individuals who not only study the history of astronomy, but also those who lived it, who were “in the room” during pivotal events within the last 50 years or so.  

Today’s guest:  Dr. Sethanne Howard talks about Women in Science History, including En’Hedu’anna – the first astronomer whose name and work we know – who lived 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia.

Podcast music: “Frost Waltz” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under creative commons: by attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Bio:Loretta Cannon, an AAS affiliate via Rose City Astronomers, is a member of the leadership committee for the Historical Astronomy Division (2023-2025). She is a polymath with degrees in anthropology, microbiology, and biochemistry, and has many years of experience in both the private sector and government. When not reading some of her way-too-many books, she watches BritBox, creates recipes, or plays in the garden. She chose science writing/editing in astronomy as a new career. In short, she’s a sciencephile-word-nerd-foodie-with-a-plant-habit who really likes the stars.

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Transcript:

Rather than provide a complete transcript, we’re sharing links for further reading for the topics or names you’ve heard in today’s episode:  “Women in Science History”

Whirlpool galaxy (M51): https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-51/

Dr. Sethanne Howard’s PhD dissertation (on ADS): https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1989PhDT……..12H/abstract

Dr. Howard’s website: www.4kyws.ua.edu

Hertzsprung-Russell diagram: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertzsprung%E2%80%93Russell_diagram

US Nautical Almanac Office publications: https://aa.usno.navy.mil/publications/almanacs

First writing – Cuneiform in Sumer 3000 BCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform

En’Hedu’ana, Astronomer-Priestess: https://www.4kyws.ua.edu/EN.html and https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20221025-enheduanna-the-worlds-first-named-author

Princess, Priestess, Poet The Sumerian Temple Hymns of Enheduanna by Betty De Shong Meador: https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292723535/princess-priestess-poet/

Aganice of Egypt: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315014672_Aganice_XX_bc#:~:text=Aganice%2C%20cited%20in%20other%20texts,on%20astronomy%20and%20natural%20philosophy

Theano of Croton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theano_(philosopher)

Golden Ratio   a+b/a  =  a/b: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

Hypatia: https://www.4kyws.ua.edu/HYPATIA.html and https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hypatia-ancient-alexandrias-great-female-scholar-10942888/

Library of Alexandria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria

astrolabe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrolabe

Carl Sagan’s COSMOS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos:_A_Personal_Voyage

Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater

COBE – Cosmic Background Explorer spacecraft: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/cobe/

1994 AAS announcement of recent COBE results – black body curve (if this isn’t the correct citation, the fault is entirely mine – ljc): https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994AAS…185.5711S/abstract and https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1994ApJ…436..423B

blackbody radiation: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/astro801/content/l3_p5.html#:~:text=The%20peak%20of%20the%20blackbody,temperature%20of%20approximately%205800%20Kelvin

Fritz Zwicky; https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02603-7

Fritz Zwicky reported existence of ‘dunkle kalte materie, 1933: https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1999ApJ…525C.297O

Vera Rubin and Kent Ford – flat galaxy rotation curves: https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Sept16/Bertone/Bertone4.html#:~:text=In%20the%201960s%2C%20Kent%20Ford,forward%20in%20terms%20of%20quality and https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/202306/history.cfm

Gaia space telescope: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/gaia/

Plank mission: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/Planck

Cosmic Microwave Background: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/research/topic/cosmic-microwave-background

International Ultraviolet Explorer: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/iue/

Gemini telescopes: https://www.gemini.edu/about and https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/missions/gemini-north-and-gemini-south/#:~:text=The%20Gemini%20Observatory%20consists%20of,most%20advanced%20optical%2Finfrared%20telescopes

Compton Gamma Ray Observatory: https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/cgro/cgro.html and https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/missions/cgro/

Very Large Telescope (VLT):https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/

Orion nebula: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-42/ and an article about Sethanne Howard’s work by Joan Schmelz on the AAS’ website for Women in Astronomy in which Sethanne relates working at Lick Observatory in the 1960s  https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2013/06/two-years-at-lick-observatory.html

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