The Music Hall Will Welcome the New York Times Bestselling Author and Science Journalist Dava Sobel

On Wednesday, December 7, The Music Hall will welcome the New York Times bestselling author and science journalist Dava Sobel to its celebrated Writers in the Loft series. Ms. Sobel will discuss her latest book, THE GLASS UNIVERSE: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars, in which she recounts the little-known true story of a group of women whose remarkable work over many decades made enormous contributions to the burgeoning field of astronomy, and forever changed our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.

The 7pm event includes an author presentation and moderated Q+A, plus book signing and meet-and-greet. It will be held at the Music Hall Loft at 131 Congress Street, in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

"Dava Sobel's latest work of nonfiction shines," said Patricia Lynch, Executive Producer of Writers in the Loft and the evening's moderator. "Not only does she bring light to women's accomplishments at the Harvard Observatory, but also reveals how their research has continued to have a lasting effect on scientific inquiry. Sobel's ability to bring the past to life is spectacular, and we can't wait to hear more."

ABOUT THE BOOK

In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or "human computers," to interpret the observations made via telescope by their male counterparts each night. At the outset this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of resident astronomers, but by the 1880s the female corps included graduates of the new women's colleges - Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith.

As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the ladies turned to studying the stars and captured them nightly on glass photographic plates. These women made extraordinary discoveries that attracted worldwide acclaim as they amassed a "glass universe" of half a million plates kept at Harvard. They helped discover what the stars were made of, divided stars into meaningful categories for further research, and found a way to measure distance across space by starlight.

Among their ranks were Willamina Fleming, a Scottish woman originally hired as a maid who went on to identify ten novae and more than three hundred variable stars; Annie Jump Cannon, who designed a stellar classification system that was adopted by astronomers the world over and is still in use; and Dr. Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin, who in 1956 became the first-ever woman professor of astronomy at Harvard - and Harvard's first female department chair.

Elegantly written and enriched by excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, The Glass Universe is the hidden history of a group of remarkable women who, through hard work and groundbreaking discoveries, disproved the commonly held belief that gentler sex had little to contribute to human knowledge.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dava Sobel, a former New York Times science reporter, is the author of Longitude, Galileo's Daughter, and Letters to Father. In her thirty years as a science journalist, she has written for many magazines, and coauthored six books, including Is Anyone Out There? with astronomer Frank Drake and The Illustrated Longitude with William J. H. Andrews. Sobel has been awarded the National Science Board's prestigious Individual Public Service Award, the Bradford Washburn Award from The Boston Museum of Science, and the Harrison Medal from the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers.

TICKETS

The ticket package for Writers in the Loft: Dava Sobel on Wednesday, December 7 at 7pm is $44 ($42, members). In addition to a reserved seat, the package includes a copy of THE GLASS UNIVERSE: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars ($30, hardcover), a bar beverage, and book signing meet-and-greet. Packages can be purchased through The Music Hall Box Office, located at 28 Chestnut Street, Portsmouth, over the phone at 603.436.2400, or online at www.themusichall.org

About Writers in the Loft

Akin to The Music Hall's anchor literary series, Writers on a New England Stage, Writers in the Loft features bestselling authors in a smaller, more intimate space. The series brings audiences today's top authors, the best of fiction and nonfiction, and award-winners across categories. The evening package includes a reserved seat and bar beverage, author presentation and Q+A, a copy of the book, and a meet-and-greet book signing with the featured writer.

Series Sponsor: RMC Research Corporation

Contributing Partner: The University of New Hampshire

Season Sponsors: Carey & Giampa Realtors; Portwalk Place; The River House restaurant

About The Music Hall

The Music Hall is a performing arts center featuring curated entertainment from around the world in two theaters in its downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire campus - one, a landmark 1878 Victorian theater, designated an American Treasure for the Arts by the National Park Service's Save America's Treasures Program, the other the intimate Music Hall Loft around the corner, recently named "best performing arts venue" by Yankee Magazine and the recipient of the NH AIA award for design excellence.