Catherine Octavia Stevens (1865-1959) was an amateur astronomer who was Director of the British Astronomical Association Meteor Section from 1905 to 1911.[1] Her primary interest was the Sun and she made drawings of sunspots using a 3 inch refractor.[1]

She joined the six month old British Astronomical Association on 27 May 1891.[2] On the 1911 census she gave her occupation as Astronomer, working for the British Astronomical Association and her address was The Plain, Foxcombe Hill, Oxford.[3], a house with an observatory at the top of Boars Hill, Oxford.[1] She lived there from 1910 to 1956.[1] In 1939 she gave her occupation as Meteorologist Astronomer.[4]

Travels

Catherine Stevens travelled to see total solar eclipses from Algiers on May 28, 1900, Majorca on August 30, 1905 and Quebec on August 31, 1932.[1] She spent a year in Shetland to study the Aurora Borealis.[1] She travelled to New Zealand and visited the hot springs at Rotorua.[1]

Family

She was born at the Rectory,[3] Bradfield, Berkshire on 23 January 1865,[4] the daughter of Thomas Stevens (1809-1888), Rector of Bradfield and founder of Bradfield College and Susanna Stevens née Marriott (c1824-1866),[5] daughter of Rev Robert Marriott, Rector of Cotesbach, Leicestershire.[6] Catherine Stevens died on 16 June 1959.[1]

Her older sister, Mary Ann Stevens, married John Oldrid Scott, son of the architect George Gilbert Scott.[7]

Publications

Obituary

  • "Obituary". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 70 (2): 103–104. January 1960. Written by James Henry Drake.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Obituary, JBAA". astrophysics data system. Bibcode:1960JBAA...70..103. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  2. ↑ Larsen, Kristine, "Shooting Stars: The Women Directors of the Meteor Section of the British Astronomical Association", Antiquarian Astronomer, 2006, Issue 3, pp 76-77
  3. 1 2 1911 Census of England and Wales
  4. 1 2 1939 England and Wales Register
  5. ↑ Deaths, Reading Mercury, 14 July 1866.
  6. ↑ Marriages, Leicestershire Mercury, 25 March 1843
  7. ↑ Reading Mercury, 2 May 1868


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