Catherine Octavia Stevens (1865-1959) was an amateur astronomer who was Director of the
British Astronomical Association
The British Astronomical Association (BAA) was formed in 1890 as a national body to support the UK's amateur astronomers.
Throughout its history, the BAA has encouraged observers to make scientifically valuable observations, often in collaborati ...
Meteor Section from 1905 to 1911.
She joined the British Astronomical Association on 27 May 1891.
[Larsen, Kristine]
"Shooting Stars: The Women Directors of the Meteor Section of the British Astronomical Association"
''Antiquarian Astronomer'', 2006, Issue 3, pp 76-77 On the 1911 census she gave her occupation as Astronomer, working for the British Astronomical Association.
In 1939 her occupation was listed as Meteorologist Astronomer.
Her address on the 1911 census was The Plain, Foxcombe Hill, Oxford.
, a house with an observatory at the top of
Boars Hill
Boars Hill is a Hamlet (place), hamlet southwest of Oxford, straddling the boundary between the Civil parishes in England, civil parishes of Sunningwell and Wootton, Vale of White Horse, Wootton. Historically, part of Berkshire until the Local ...
, Oxford.
She lived there from 1910 to 1956.
Her first interest was the Sun and she made drawings of sunspots using a 3 inch refractor.
Travels
Catherine Stevens travelled to see
total solar eclipses
Total may refer to:
Mathematics
* Total, the summation of a set of numbers
* Total order, a partial order without incomparable pairs
* Total relation, which may also mean
** connected relation (a binary relation in which any two elements are compa ...
from
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
on
May 28, 1900,
Majorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean.
The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...
on
August 30, 1905 and
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
on
August 31, 1932.
She spent a year in
Shetland
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
The islands lie about to the no ...
to study the
Aurora Borealis
An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of br ...
.
She travelled to
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
and visited the hot springs at
Rotorua
Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...
.
Family
She was born at the Rectory,
[1911 Census of England and Wales] Bradfield, Berkshire on 23 January 1865,
[1939 England and Wales Register] the daughter of Thomas Stevens (1809-1888), Rector of Bradfield and founder of
Bradfield College
Bradfield College, formally St Andrew's College, Bradfield, is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils aged 11–18, located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire. It is note ...
and Susanna Stevens née Marriott (c1824-1866), daughter of Rev Robert Marriott, Rector of
Cotesbach
Cotesbach is a village and civil parish in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The nearest town is Lutterworth, about to the north. Rugby is 6 miles south of the parish. The River Swift flows through the pa ...
, Leicestershire. Catherine Stevens died on 16 June 1959.
Her older sister, Mary Ann Stevens, married
John Oldrid Scott
John Oldrid Scott (17 July 1841 – 30 May 1913) was a British architect.
Biography
He was the son of Sir Gilbert Scott (George Gilbert Scott) and his wife Caroline (née Oldrid). His brother George Gilbert Scott Junior and nephew Sir Giles Gil ...
, son of the architect
George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...
.
[''Reading Mercury'', 2 May 1868]
Publications
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Obituary
* Written by James Henry Drake.
References
External links
*
A drawing of the corona at the total solar eclipse of 30 August 1905 made by Catherine Stevens'' in Richard McKim
A different sort of society ''Astronomy & Geophysics'', Volume 57, Issue 4, August 2016, Pages 4.14–4.17,
Women astronomers
20th-century British astronomers
1865 births
People from Bradfield, Berkshire
People from Vale of White Horse (district)
1959 deaths
19th-century British astronomers
{{UK-astronomer-stub