A Day of Astronomy

Our first day at the Stellafane Convention in Vermont was spent at the Hartness House Workshop.  This is a program that has been running for at least 10 years, where professional astronomers and others come speak to us about their work and their discoveries.  That is an all-day event, and then there is a banquet with a keynote speaker.  This year it was the author Dava Sobel, whose first book was "Longitude" a best seller about John Harrison, a self-taught clockmaker , who built the first clock that would keep really accurate time at sea, on a rolling ship.  It was a best seller!  She lives on Long Island and years ago I got to photograph her when her second book came out. She spoke about poetry related to astronomy.  Here she is signing one of her books for one of the members who attended the talk. Her new book is titled "The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars."  I can't wait to read that one because she is such a great writer.