Wondrous devices

The Hudson River Museum's 'Wondrous Devices' exhibition explores the various scientific devices and instruments that helped shape what people now know about the Earth, the stars and planets. It's on display through Dec. 30. For people on the go in the 19th century, 'Walking Cane' allowed them to sightsee or look up at the night sky with a simple telescope held together by a walking cane.

These women saw our universe as never before. Here’s their story.

At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the foothills above Los Angeles, they calculated orbital trajectories for missions heading to space - a tale told in Nathalia Holt's recent Rise of the Rocket Girls . At the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., they crunched the numbers from experiments in aeronautical wind tunnels, all the better to steer astronauts on launch and landing through Earth's atmosphere.