2020-03-01_Cosmos_Magazine

JOHN G. WOLBACH LIBRARY, HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY; JEEVAN JOSE

PROJECT MANAGER Chris Sanderson

reports that the Butterflies Australia app

has been installed more than 3200 times

since its October 2019 launch, and that

more than 800 verified records have already

been captured.

Sanderson took time out from the

project’s Hobart workshop in February for

a spot of butterfly hunting withCosmosin

the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens.

He demonstrated how easy it is to use the

app (right) – adding an observation of a

meadow argus (Junonia villida) for good

measure – and waxed lyrical about the

project’s impact.

“Initially the most valuable thing we’re

going to get is a record of where things

occur,” he says. “We’ll be able to use real

data to drive our range maps, which is

really exciting. But for me that’s sort of the

quick and easy win. The next step is getting

more time-based information – what times

of year things are emerging, and is that

UPDATE

the Harvard College Observatory by
identifying the glass plates they worked
on and transcribing their research notes,”
explains Carver.
“What we really need is to know which
pages have plate numbers so that we know
who worked on which glass plate. That also
allows us to tie the actual notes that they
took to the glass plates. Right now, that
information isn’t available.
“We also don’t know the history or even
names of many of the Harvard Computers,
as many are currently only identified by
initials. We also hope this effort may help
us discover who these women were and
assist researchers in telling their stories.”
The Star Notes project also hopes to
further understanding of how the Universe
looked a century ago, so that we can learn
more about how the study of astronomy has
developed.
“By studying the notebooks, we can
understand how they did this science at the
time,” says Carver. “It’s really fascinating

because it required really excellent eyesight

• because you’re looking at stars that
  are really, really small on the glass plate
  photographs.
  “They were making measurements
  based on these physical gauges they had
  called ‘flyswatters’ to try and understand
  and classify the stars. It’s very different from
  what we can do today with computers.”
  In the long run, the researchers hope
  the results of this project, combined
  with others, will not only recognise the
  Harvard Computers for their work, but
  will give researchers a rare opportunity to
  investigate change.
  “The digitised glass plates combined
  with the transcribed historical observations
  could impact our understanding of the
  Universe and its evolution,” says Carver.
  AMELIA NICHELE

“The observations

could impact our

understanding of

the Universe and

its evolution”

Many of the logbooks’ recordings remain

anoonymous; Carver hopes the project will

discover more about the women

who contributed.

Euchrysops cnejus

ZEITGEIST CITIZEN SCIENCE