With the now acknowledgement of some of the “hidden figures” in space projects, it is timely to note that women have been involved in astronomy at all times, both as acknowledged trail blazers and often behind-the-scenes. Years ago, as part of an astronomy course, I wrote a paper on the “Carte du Ciel” project, an ambitious international collaborative attempt to photograph the entire sky, launched in 1887, in which brief reference is made to women employed on the project. With minor modification, the paper can be read by clicking on the link below. Note the paper was written in 2003, so the web links in the references do not work.

I should point out that amateur science is important and astronomy, specifically, is a field in which amateur contribution is of great significance. In this paper it is merely noted that the “Carte du Ciel” project marked a transition in Australian science from amateur to “big science”, which was not necessarily a good thing and had both its advantages and disadvantages. Much of the ground-breaking research in Australia at the time was by amateurs. 

“Photographing the Sky in 1887 – Australia’s contribution to the Carte du Ciel project”