Agnes Mary Clerke

ANNIVERSARY:

One hundred years ago today the historian of Astronomy, Agnes Mary Clerke, died.

Agnes was from Skibbereen.

Peter.

(Just thought someone ought to mark this day.)

Hi,

And just a reminder:

On Monday Mar. 19th 2007 (8pm) Dr Mary Bruck will give the IAS a talk
"An Astronomical Centenary: Agnes Mary Clerke (1842-1907)"

Dr Bruck is author of a biography of Agnes Clerke (Agnes Mary Clerke & the Rise of Astrophysics)

Venue: Ely House, 8 Ely Place, Dublin 2
(just off St Stephens Green, near Shelbourne Hotel).

All welcome.

John

Today January 20th 2007 is the one hundred anniversary of the death of Agnes Mary Clerke. Agnes was a renaissance woman, a great scientific writer and a remarkable foreword thinker. She was so well respected by the scientific community of her time,and through her books she made an outstanding contribution to astronomy and astrophysics.

She was prolific letter writer, with a wonderful ability to communicate on a global scale with the most prominent astronomers of the nineteenth century. It is important to remember her as she was unique and she was Irish.

Agnes is commemorated in a small crater on the Moon, one of the additional features revealed on the Lunar Orbiter photographs named by NASA in 1981.
Clerke, 7km in diameter at latitude and longitude 22˚N, 30˚E, on the edge of the Sea of Serenity near the spot where Apollo 12 landed in 1972. A plaque in remembrance of Agnes and her sister Ellen is on the house in Skibbereen were the sisters were born.


Clerke Craterlet on the Waxing Moon Terminator
Named after Agnes Mary Clerke Irish Astronomer
Isolated circular formation with bowl shape and overlapping a rille of Rimae Littrow.
Sketch shows hints of Atlas, Hercules,and Posidonius.

Sketched using Conte crayons, Prismalo Watercolor Pencils, on 300gm Dalar Rowney Black Paper
November 25th 2006 - 16:30UT - 17:10UT
Sky Watcher 200mm - 8mm TVP eyepiece
23.2% Waxing Moon, 22.8% illuminated, Altitude 11degrees.
Bray, Co Wicklow Ireland
This sketch is incomplete due to the very low altitude of the Moon, resulting in a battle with trees, electricity cables, and clouds.
Dee
Deirdre Kelleghan
Irish Astronomical Society 1937 - 2007
irishastrosoc.org
soc.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
www.sketchthesky.com/

There were no commemorations for her in Cork.

If she had taken a few pot-shots at fleeing English soldiers every village in Cork would have a statue of her.

Some heros(or heroines) are not remembered.

Peter

Dick Ahlstrom has a piece about Agnes in today's Irish Times' Science section.

Peter.