The fascination of the heavens: women in astronomy in Britain in an age before equality

Dr Mary Bruck, emeritus lecturer from the University of Edinburgh,

Astronomy, and popular interest in it, flourished to a remarkable degree in Britain in the nineteenth century, women being among its votaries. In her talk Dr Bruck will outline the little-known contribution of women to astronomy - from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries.

Enterprising amateur astronomers had private observatories for serious research, assisted in many cases by female family members. Dr Bruck will explain how later on, independently-minded women with university degrees sought proper professional careers in science, with only limited success. The path to equality was to be a very slow one.

Dr Bruck's lecture will describe the lives and contributions of some of these interesting women, including the famous comet discoverer Caroline Herschel (sister of William, discoverer of Uranus and the first President of the Royal Astronomical Society).

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