Compelling talks followed by picnicking and convivial stargazing through both the big telescopes.
Come enjoy an inspiring night on the mountain! The evening begins with the talk at 5:30 in our Auditorium, followed by observing through both the 60- and 100-inch telescopes from dusk to 11:30PM — the two largest telescopes in the world available for public use. Additional stargazing around the grounds will be available from members of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society. Food will be available for purchase from a food truck, or bring your own picnic!
TICKETS: $50
Please note: All ticket sales are final.
We’re unable to offer refunds, exchanges, or transfers. Thank you for understanding!
Speaker: Anna Von Mertens, Visual Artist and Author
Topic: The Brightness of Stars: Henrietta Leavitt and the Transformative Nature of Attention in Art and Science
Visual artist and author Anna Von Mertens explores the life and legacy of Henrietta Leavitt, the pioneering astronomer whose study of variable stars provided the first reliable way to measure vast cosmic distances. Working among the women now known as the Harvard Computers at the Harvard College Observatory, Leavitt laid the foundation for major breakthroughs at Mount Wilson, including Harlow Shapley’s mapping of the Milky Way and Edwin Hubble’s discovery of an expanding universe. Drawing from her book Attention Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, von Mertens shares archival materials alongside her own artwork inspired by Leavitt’s life, using art to celebrate not only how careful, trained attention leads to scientific discovery, but also how that applied attention creates a meaningful life.
Anna Von Mertens is the author of the book Attention Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt (MIT Press 2024), which received an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Public Understanding of Science and Technology grant and was named a finalist for the Association of American Publishers Prose Award in the category for History of Science, Medicine, and Technology. The book is an expansion of Von Mertens’s 2018-2019 exhibition at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, which traveled to the University Galleries of Illinois State University and Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in 2023. She received a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she studied dark matter as a structuring force in our universe, and a United States Artists Fellowship in Visual Arts. Her labor-intensive artworks use material intelligence as a lens to see science and history and have been widely exhibited at institutions including the Aspen Art Museum; Berkeley Art Museum; deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design in Oslo, Norway; RISD Museum; Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery; and Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College.
