Agnes Mary Clerke
Agnes Mary Clerke (born February 10, 1842 in Skibbereen ( Ireland ), † January 20, 1907 in London ) was an Irish-British astronomer and author of scientific articles and books.
life and work
Agnes Clerke was the daughter of John William Clerke, bank manager in Skibbereen, and his wife Catherine Mary Deasy. Clerke had two siblings with whom she was homeschooled. Through her father, she discovered early on her interest in astronomy . She used her father's 4-inch telescope for this . In 1861 the family moved to Dublin and in 1863 to Queenstown . In 1867 she went to Italy with her older sister Ellen for health reasons. She stayed mainly in Florence , where she studied science and languages. In addition to scientific work, she also wrote popular scientific literature and worked on biographical reference works . She wrote 149 biographies for the Dictionary of National Biography and articles for the Encyclopædia Britannica , Nature and the Edinburgh Review . In 1890 she was one of the founders of the British Astronomical Association .
Works (selection)
- A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century . Edinburgh, 1885
- The System of the Stars . London, 1890
- The Herschels and Modern Astronomy . London, 1895
- The Concise Knowledge Astronomy . London, 1898
- Problems in Astrophysics . London, 1903
Awards
- 1892 Actonian Prize from the Royal Institution of Great Britain
- In 1903 she became the fourth woman after Caroline Herschel , Mary Somerville and Anne Sheepshanks, together with Margaret Lindsay Huggins, of the Royal Astronomical Society
- 1973: Name of the lunar crater Clerke
- 2017: The Royal Astronomical Society awards the Agnes Mary Clerke Medal for historical research in astronomy or geophysics
Literature (selection)
- MT Brück: Agnes Mary Clerke and the Rise of Astrophysics , 2002, ISBN 9780521808446 limited preview in the Google book search
Web links
- Agnes Mary Clerke history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk
- Agnes Mary Clerke: stars, systems, problems academic.oup.com
- Agnes Mary Clerke in the Catholic Encyclopedia
- Agnes Mary Clerke in the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ Agnes Mary Clerke
- ↑ Marilyn Ogilvie (Ed.): The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science AK , Volume 1. Routledge: New York and London ,, ISBN 0-415-92039-6 , pp. 269-271.
- ↑ Sylvia Paletschek: Topic: Popularization of Science, limited preview in the Google book search
- ^ Brown, Ernest W .: Review: Problems in Astrophysics by Agnes M. Clerke . In: Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. . 10, No. 4, 1904, pp. 205-206. doi : 10.1090 / S0002-9904-1904-01096-4 .
- ^ Agnes Mary Clerke Medal for Historical Research
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Clerke, Agnes Mary |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Clerke, Agnes |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British astronomer and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 10, 1842 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Skibbereen |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 20, 1907 |
| Place of death | London |