Of all the instruments that Dudley has used throughout its century and a half of operation, the one that most stands out is the Scheutz Difference Engine. Although it is now housed in the Smithsonian, the Scheutz served Dudley well…
Read MoreOrmsby MacKnight Mitchel and James Armsby both deserve credit for inspiring and founding the Dudley Observatory. But when Mitchell was tied up working as an engineer, Armsby had to look elsewhere to find a director who could organize the construction of the Observatory…
Read MoreOh, the joys of working at a hybrid museum … Notice, no sweat on Charles Dudley. After years of being at the top of New York State politics, he no longer fears anything. The dinosaurs are here, and the exhibit…
Read MoreOn August 28, 1856, at the end of a conference for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Albany, the visiting scientists met with many of New York’s political elite to witness the inauguration of the Dudley…
Read MoreGiven that the Inauguration of the Dudley Observatory took place right after the AAAS convention, it’s not surprising that many of the attendees were scientists. However, some of the names of the list of attendees stand out: Alexander Dallas Bache,…
Read MoreI get this question a lot. Actually, I usually get “Where IS Dudley?”, which requires me to explain that we don’t have an observatory at the moment, but we’re working on it. But after that, someone has to explain where the…
Read MoreI’ve been telling everyone for years now that the Pruyn Brashear Telescope is in good shape. It looks that way to me, but really, I’m not the expert. Thankfully, the telescope experts from Ray Museum Studios have now looked at it, and agreed…
Read MoreWriting about Blandina Dudley can be tricky. I can wish it were different, but almost all of our sources focus on her relationship with the men around her. Basically, any discussion of Mrs. Dudley fails the Bechdel test. Mrs. Dudley…
Read MoreIn 1892, Dudley Observatory director Benjamin Boss took stock of the observatory’s position in the field of astronomy and found it wanting. Dudley was had fallen behind the times, with no equipment to do spectroscope work and no telescope capable…
Read MoreI’ve spoken about the Dudley Observatory’s corps of women computers several times now. Every time, someone has come up to me afterwards to mention that, back in their day, there still were departments of women working low level mathematical jobs.…
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