Flamsteed Astronomy Society
History of Astronomy - Talks by Simon Nosworthy and Mary Dooley
Introduction to the Stella Cinderella A talk by Simon Nosworthy about Caroline Herschel
What is the connection between the first officially paid female scientist, the first woman to discover a comet and the first woman to join the Royal Society? Caroline Herschel is the connection, and these are just a few of her accomplishments.
Caroline was destined to be a domestic assistant, the role set out for many women of her time. Caroline fought prejudice, poverty, pestilence and her mother to escape this destiny and become one of the greatest astronomers of her age. How on earth did she do all this?
Alice Everett; The Greenwich Astronomer who mapped the stars and became one of the early pioneers in TV Technology A talk by Mary Dooley.
Alice Everett was one of the first batch women to be allowed to study for a degree at Girton College Cambridge and from January 1890 to be employed as an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. She was employed as a ‘lady computer’ but primarily worked on a major international project called the Carte de Ciel. Alice was the ultimate ‘career changer’! She continued to re-educate herself in STEM subjects to stay relevant and employable in the male dominated workplace of the 1900s. This enables her to get a job at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and later on with the Baird TV company working on the nascent technology of Television. She published many scientific papers in her lifetime notably in the notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the annual reports of the NPL and even in the journal Nature. She was a founder member of the Television Society later known as the Royal Television Society. A truly amazing lady of science!