Best Of: The Victorian Woman Who Chased Eclipses

The year is 1897 and Annie Maunder, an amateur astronomer, is boarding a steamship bound for India from England. Her goal: to photograph a total solar eclipse. Maunder was fascinated by the secrets of the sun and was determined to travel the globe and unlock them. She understood that the few minutes of darkness during a solar eclipse presented a special opportunity to explore the nature of the sun. Her observations led to our greater understanding of how the sun affects the earth, but like so many early female scientists, her contributions and achievements have been forgotten.This Best Of episode, which first aired in April 2024, is also available in a Spanish adaptation, narrated by Laura Gómez. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices