A. Grace Cook

Alice Grace Cook FRAS (18 February 1877 - 27 May 1958), known as Grace Cook or A. Grace Cook was a British astronomer. Cook lived in Stowmarket, Suffolk.^[1] After she died she was remembered by her colleagues as a skilled and dedicated observer.^[2] In September 2021 it was announced that a new school in the town was to be named after Grace Cook.^[3] The school will be run by the Orwell Multi Academy Trust.^[4] In March 2023 minor planet 2000 EY₁₅₆ was named Gracecook in her honour.^[5]

Grace Cook attended a series of lectures in astronomy given by Joseph Hardcastle in the autumn of 1909. Enthused she joined the British Astronomical Association on 22 February 1911 at the invitation of Hardcastle.^[6][7] Cook observed the 7 November 1914 transit of Mercury from her observatory.^[8] In January 1916 Cook was among the first group of women elected as Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society.^[9] Her RAS election was proposed by W F Denning. With Joseph Alfred Hardcastle, Cook worked to identify and describe 785 New General Catalogue objects on the 206 plates of the John Franklin-Adams photographic survey.^[10][11] She was renowned for her work observing meteors, and also observed naked-eye phenomena including the zodiacal light and aurorae. During World War One Cook, with Fiammetta Wilson, temporarily headed the British Astronomical Association's Meteor Section.^[12] Cook observed comets and Milky Way novae and was among the first people to see V603 Aquilae, a nova discovered in June 1918.^[13] This work earned her the Edward C. Pickering Fellowship from the Maria Mitchell Association in 1920–1921.^[14] From 1921 to 1923 Cook was sole director of the British Astronomical Association's Meteor Section.^[15] On 30 May 1922 she attended the RAS Centenary celebrations held at Burlington House where she appears in the group photograph identified as number 16.^[16]

• Cook, A Grace (October 1911). "Crepuscular Rays". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 22 (1): 48. Bibcode:1911JBAA...22...38.
• Cook, A Grace (December 1913). "Extraordinary Meteor Display in 1876". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 24 (3): 168. Bibcode:1913JBAA...24..165.
• Cook, A Grace (August 1914). "Light Rays in the Sky". The Observatory. 37 (477): 324–325. Bibcode:1914Obs....37..324C.
• Cook, A Grace (November 1914). "The 1914 Transit of Mercury". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 25 (2): 84–85. Bibcode:1914JBAA...25...76.
• Cook, A Grace (March 1915). "Magnitudes of Meteors". The Observatory. 38 (485): 136–142. Bibcode:1915Obs....38..136C.
• Cook, A Grace (June 1915). "Meteor Reflections". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 25 (8): 392–393. Bibcode:1915JBAA...25..389.
• Cook, A Grace (March 1916). "Twilight on Feb.3, 1916". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 26 (6): 247.
• Cook, A Grace; Wilson, Fiammetta (June 1916). "Report of the Observing Sections: Meteor Section". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 26 (8): 300–301. Bibcode:1916JBAA...26..300W.
• Cook, A Grace (June 1916). "An Anthelion". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 26 (8): 309. Bibcode:1916JBAA...26..309.
• Cook, A Grace; Wilson, Fiammetta (October 1916). "Report of the Observing Sections: Meteor Section". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 27 (1): 34. Bibcode:1916JBAA...27...34W.
• Cook, A Grace; Wilson, Fiammetta (January 1917). "Reports of the Observing Sections: Meteor Section". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 27 (3): 108–112. Bibcode:1917JBAA...27..108W.
• Cook, A Grace; Wilson, Fiammetta (April 1917). "Reports of the Observing Sections: Meteor Section". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 27 (6): 186. Bibcode:1917JBAA...27..186W.
• Cook, A Grace; Wilson, Fiammetta (October 1917). "Reports of the Observing Sections: Meteor Section". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 28 (1): 19–21. Bibcode:1917JBAA...28...19W.
• Cook, A Grace; Blagg, Mary A (December 1917). "Appreciation of J A Hardcastle". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 28 (2): 71. Bibcode:1917JBAA...28...70.
• Cook, A Grace; Wilson, Fiammetta (1918). "Coopération interalliée en astronomie météorique". Journal des Observateurs. 2 (4): 41–42. Bibcode:1918JO......2...41W.
• Cook, A Grace; Wilson, Fiammetta (February 1918). "Reports of the Observing Sections: Interim Report of the Meteoric Section". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 28 (4): 116–123. Bibcode:1918JBAA...28..116W.
• Cook, A Grace; Wilson, Fiammetta (March 1918). "Meteoric Astronomy". The Observatory. 41 (524): 127–129. Bibcode:1918Obs....41..127W.
• Cook, A Grace (May 1918). "Lunar Rays". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 28 (7): 228. Bibcode:1918JBAA...28..228.
• Cook, A Grace (June 1918). "Observations of Nova Aquilæ". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 78: 569. Bibcode:1918MNRAS..78..569C. doi:10.1093/mnras/78.8.569.
• Cook, A Grace; Wilson, Fiammetta (October 1918). "Reports of the Observing Sections: Meteor Section". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 29 (1): 19–24. Bibcode:1918JBAA...29...19W.
• Cook, A Grace (November 1920). "Two Sunsets; Nacreous Clouds and a Sun Pillar". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 31 (2): 72–73. Bibcode:1920JBAA...31...69N.
• Cook, A Grace (1921). "Notes on the Meteor Showers of October and November". Popular Astronomy. 29: 67–68. Bibcode:1921PA.....29...66C.
• Cook, A Grace (February 1921). "Luminous Night Skies and Clouds: Terrestrial Ice Crystals a Possible Cause". The Observatory. 44 (561): 50–52. Bibcode:1921Obs....44...50C.
• Cook, A Grace (November 1921). "Elliptical Haloes". The Observatory. 44 (570): 334–335. Bibcode:1921Obs....44..334C.
• Cook, A Grace (January 1922). "Director of the Meteor Section". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 32 (4): 128–131. Bibcode:1922JBAA...32..128C.
• Cook, A Grace; Prentice, J P M (February 1922). "Notes on Unusual Haloes". The Observatory. 45 (573): 47–51. Bibcode:1922Obs....45...47C.
• Cook, A Grace; Prentice, J P M (March 1922). "Observations of the Meteors of the ε Arietid Radiant in 1921". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 82: 309. Bibcode:1922MNRAS..82..309C. doi:10.1093/mnras/82.5.309.
• Cook, A Grace (February 1923). "The Radiant of the Orionids". The Observatory. 46 (585): 49–51. Bibcode:1923Obs....46...49C.
• Cook, A Grace (March 1923). "Observational Methods for Meteor Observers". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 33 (6): 235–237. Bibcode:1923JBAA...33..235C.
• Cook, A Grace (1924). "Section for the Observation of Meteors. Report of the Section, 1922". Memoirs of the British Astronomical Association. 24: 49–82. Bibcode:1924MmBAA..24...49.
• Cook, A Grace (May 1926). "The Earth's Shadow". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 36 (7): 260. Bibcode:1926JBAA...36..252.
• Cook, A Grace (May 1932). "An Interesting Old Book". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 42 (7): 264. Bibcode:1932JBAA...42..261.

• Hunter, Alan (1958). "Death of Alice Grace Cook". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 68 (8): 302. Bibcode:1958JBAA...68..302B.
• Barton, William (2019). "Alice Grace Cook: An East Anglian Meteor Observer". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 129: 29–37. Bibcode:2019JBAA..129...29B.