What I Learned at the Harvard Observatory
Images taken by the Chandra Space Telescope. Courtesy of NASA.
A Conversation with Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.
The Harvard Computers - the women who mapped the night sky - outside of the Harvard College Observatory, May 1913.
Story Preservation’s recording of Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell was one of our earliest and one of my most ambitious. I am not well-versed in astrophysics, and that’s a considerable understatement. I went into the recording session fully prepped, of course. I always do. Still, I was worried that the talking points I had developed would be “off the mark,” I guess you could say. And, it turns out, judged by a couple of looks that crossed over Jonathan’s face, a few of them were. But I learned firsthand, and all over again, what we tell kids all the time: There’s no such thing as a stupid question. And there isn’t. And I know. Because I pushed the boundaries of that little adage and came out a winner!
So, there I was at Harvard, at the Observatory, one of the oldest and most storied observatories in the world, meeting with the renowned astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, a stunningly brilliant scientist who is part of the team behind the Chandra Space Telescope.
After dropping my recording equipment at the door, Jonathan took me on a completely unexpected and fascinating tour. We entered the room that houses The Great Refractor, Harvard's original telescope, installed in 1847. He told me about the history of the Observatory, the people who worked there, and the discoveries they made. This intro to the Harvard College Observatory (which is open for group tours by appt., fyi) not only put me at ease but became the basis of an SPI-developed lesson plan titled The Harvard Computers: Women in Science that focuses on the discoveries of women astronomers, most notably Annie Jump Cannon, known as "the census taker of the sky."
Making the Complex a Whole Lot Easier to Understand
When we sat down to record, Jonathan began at the beginning. The origin of the universe. The Big Bang. In a remarkably simple, relaxed conversation, he related complex information in such straightforward language that I got it. And once we crossed that event horizon 😊, I knew that the recording was going to work and work well. It would give kids and adults alike, the same way it was giving me, some really basic, clean, core knowledge of the universe, astrophysics, physics, chemistry, and materials science, with the added bonus of learning about The Harvard Computers. All-in-all, a jumping-off point to deeper learning. Exactly SPI's goal.
Click here to listen to Jonathan talk about Light.
A simulated image of a black hole. NASA
Other topics covered in the recording include:
The Origin of the Universe
Spectroscopy
Black Holes
The Chandra Space Telescope
Sky Surveys
To go directly to Jonathan’s page on the SPI website, click here.
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