A. Grace Cook

Alice Grace Cook FRAS (18 February 1877 - 27 May 1958), known as Grace Cook or A. Grace Cook was a British astronomer. Cook lived in Stowmarket, Suffolk.[1] After she died she was remembered by her colleagues as a skilled and dedicated observer.[2] In September 2021 it was announced that a new school in the town was to be named after Grace Cook.[3] The school will be run by the Orwell Multi Academy Trust.[4] In March 2023 minor planet 2000 EY156 was named Gracecook in her honour.[5]

Career

Grace Cook attended a series of lectures in astronomy given by Joseph Hardcastle in the autumn of 1909. Enthused she joined the British Astronomical Association on 22 February 1911 at the invitation of Hardcastle.[6][7] Cook observed the 7 November 1914 transit of Mercury from her observatory.[8] In January 1916 Cook was among the first group of women elected as Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society.[9] Her RAS election was proposed by W F Denning. With Joseph Alfred Hardcastle, Cook worked to identify and describe 785 New General Catalogue objects on the 206 plates of the John Franklin-Adams photographic survey.[10][11] She was renowned for her work observing meteors, and also observed naked-eye phenomena including the zodiacal light and aurorae. During World War One Cook, with Fiammetta Wilson, temporarily headed the British Astronomical Association's Meteor Section.[12] Cook observed comets and Milky Way novae and was among the first people to see V603 Aquilae, a nova discovered in June 1918.[13] This work earned her the Edward C. Pickering Fellowship from the Maria Mitchell Association in 1920–1921.[14] From 1921 to 1923 Cook was sole director of the British Astronomical Association's Meteor Section.[15] On 30 May 1922 she attended the RAS Centenary celebrations held at Burlington House where she appears in the group photograph identified as number 16.[16]

Publications

Further reading

References
  1. Cannon, Annie J. (17 February 1921). "Report of the Astronomical Fellowship Committee". Annual Report of the Maria Mitchell Association. 19: 15–17. Bibcode:1921MMAAR..19...15C. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  2. Larsen, Kristine (December 2006). "Shooting Stars: The Women Directors of the Meteor Section of the British Astronomical Association". The Antiquarian Astronomer. Society for the History of Astronomy. 3: 75–82. Bibcode:2006AntAs...3...75L.
  3. "Construction of new school starts as it takes name from pioneering female astronomer". Suffolk News. 14 September 2021. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  4. "Grace Cook Primary School | Orwell Multi Academy Trust". www.omat.org.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  5. "WGSBN Bulletin" (PDF).
  6. "OASI: A G Cook". www.oasi.org.uk. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  7. "1911JBAA...21..247. Page 247". articles.adsabs.harvard.edu. Bibcode:1911JBAA...21..247. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  8. "1914JBAA...25...76. Page 84". adsbit.harvard.edu. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  9. "1916MNRAS..76..195. Page 195". articles.adsabs.harvard.edu. Bibcode:1916MNRAS..76..195. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  10. "Franklin-Adams charts". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  11. "1914MNRAS..74..699H Page 706". articles.adsabs.harvard.edu. Bibcode:1914MNRAS..74..699H. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  12. "1916JBAA...27...34W Page 34". articles.adsabs.harvard.edu. Bibcode:1916JBAA...27...34W. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  13. Lockyer, Norman (1869). Nature. Smithsonian Libraries. [London, etc., Macmillan Journals Ltd., etc.]
  14. "1920Obs....43..367. Page 372". articles.adsabs.harvard.edu. Bibcode:1920Obs....43..367. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  15. "1924MmBAA..24...49. Page 49". articles.adsabs.harvard.edu. Bibcode:1924MmBAA..24...49. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  16. "1922MNRAS..82..430T Page 430B". articles.adsabs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
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