The Luminosity of Variable Stars

Abstract

Henrietta Leavitt (1888–1921) was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts. After attending Oberlin College and graduating from Radcliff College, she took a position at the Harvard College Observatory. There, she worked under Edward Pickering analyzing the brightness of stars appearing on the observatory’s photographic plates. In so doing, she discovered the relationship between the luminosity and the period of oscillation of Cepheid variables located in the Magellanic Clouds. The reading that follows, which describes Leavitt’s observations, was published in the 1912 Harvard College Observatory Circular.