For your edification and pleasure:
Astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt is portrayed in Mountain View play “Silent Sky” which runs through Feb 7th:
http://www.theatreworks.org/shows/1314-season/silentsky
Astronomy theme and local-arts play – what could be better?
Astronomical observer for 20 years and optical engineer. I design non-imaging prism and reflector optics for commercial, medical and high-end retail lighting.
Thanks for the notice! I saw Silent Sky on Friday night, and thoroughly enjoyed this play. The dialogue was clever and funny, the characters fairly well developed, and the drama was heart-felt. At a time when the “girls” weren’t allowed to touch the big telescopes, these women were fighting for suffrage, which was a theme in the play. There was some liberty taken with timelines, but it was in the spirit of a better understanding and unity of ideas. Unfortunately, tonight, Sunday, is the last performance.
M, so glad you saw it. I caught the play and also enjoyed also. I thought the career path of Leavitt’s sister helped show just how extraordinary Leavitt’s determination was. I wish there was a little more science of “astronomy’s distance ladder” using Cepheid variables, and the “Great Debate” her data helped resolve but it was there. The staging of overhanging dome which acted as the observatory and night sky/universe was beautiful apt theatrics.