During the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first two of the twentieth, theories that predicted the end-of-the-world circulated internationally and were linked to astronomers. The imminence of the end-of-the-world surpassed the fin-de-siècle atmosphere, and it remained until after the passing of Halley´s Comet in 1910, which in the case of Chile was heightened by the 1906 earthquake. Our work studies the end-of-the-world predictions associated with astronomical phenomena - specifically with the passage of comets- that circulated internationally in this period, and analyzes how they were received, re-signified, amplified or counteracted in the main Chilean cultural journals between 1890 and 1920. These theories, disseminated by the press in peripheral areas such as Chile, greatly motivated the generation of local astronomical knowledge, since the inexperienced scientific reading public interpellated and demanded local experts to explain, support or criticize these predictions. The circulation of end-of-the-world forecasts from an astronomical perspective established communication networks between regional and foreign institutions, especially between astronomical observatories and journalistic companies, which read each others works and generated an exchange of knowledge in a global manner that took into account local meanings. Our main questions are: How were the interpretations, representations and national re-significations of these theories related to the versions that circulated in global networks? What role did the local communities and institutions (observatories, government agencies, amateurs, journalistic companies, etc.) play in these global networks of circulation of end-of-the-world theories?

One of the main problems of astronomy in the mid-nineteenth century was to calculate the stellar distances and build a system of measurements that would allow to know the positions of the stars, distances, orbits, etc. This scientific task required the search of a point of observation in the south of the world that would allow comparing data between both hemispheres of the earth. In 1847 Christian Ludwig Gerling of the University of Marburg in Germany, suggested that the solar parallax could be calculated by measuring the position of Venus near its lower conjunction from observatories in distant latitudes, but close in a same meridian. James M. Gillis, an astronomer at the United States Naval Observatory, proposed to Gerling an expedition to Chile in order to do observations that would be compared with those made in the United States. This talk aims to analyze the uncertainties and difficulties to build global networks of astronomical knowledge. This will be done by studying the unpublished correspondence between Gillis and Gerling. This correspondence allows us to understand the discussions between both scientists about the planning and preparation of this southern expedition, the choice of the observation point, the methodological scope of the fieldwork and the possible use of the equipment in a different hemisphere.

The contribution of women to astronomy has been studied focusing in European and North American observatories (Kistiakowsky, 1979, Rossiter, 1984, Pérez and Kiczkowski, 2010). However, we do not know about the contribution to global projects of female South American astronomers, who have been excluded from the local histories of these scientific institutions, often because their contribution has not been in the records of their contemporaries (institutional reports or scientific publications). Photometry was a task rejected by many men and assumed by women who began working in astronomical observatories during the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. This proposal is part of the Fondecyt Regular 1170625 project "Looking at the stars of the south of the world: The National Astronomical Observatory of Chile (1852-1927)" and analyze the role played by the women workers at the National Astronomical Observatory of Chile, who participated in the observation and registration of Halley's Comet in 1910 and of the Cape Photographic Durchmusterung.