Catherine Octavia Stevens

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]

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]

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]

• Stevens, Catherine (July 1891). "Growth and Decay of Sunspots in 1891". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 6 (9): 442–444. Bibcode:1896JBAA....6..442S.
• Stevens, Catherine (July 1896). "A Curious Rainbow" (PDF). Nature. 54 (1395): 271. Bibcode:1896Natur..54Q.271S. doi:10.1038/054271c0. S2CID 4050412.
• Stevens, Catherine (June 1904). "Mock Suns". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 14 (8): 318–319. Bibcode:1904JBAA...14..318S.
• Stevens, Catherine (June 1905). "Note on Halos and Rainbows". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 15 (3): 137–138. Bibcode:1905JBAA...15..137S.
• Stevens, Catherine (October 1905). "The Problem of "Shadow Bands"" (PDF). Nature. 72 (1878): 631. Bibcode:1905Natur..72..631S. doi:10.1038/072631b0. S2CID 4054036.
• Stevens, Catherine (November 1907). "The Sun as a twinkling star". The Observatory. 30 (389): 407–408. Bibcode:1907Obs....30..407S.
• Stevens, Catherine (June 1908). "Reports of the Observing Sections: Section for the Observation of Meteors". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 18 (9): 358–360. Bibcode:1908JBAA...18..358S.
• Stevens, Catherine (January 1910). "The Physical Relation of Comets and Meteors". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 20 (4): 197–199. Bibcode:1910JBAA...20..194.
• Stevens, Catherine (December 1922). "Stellar Scintillation". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 33 (3): 108–109.
• Stevens, Catherine (March 1924). "Wind Waves and Shadow Bands". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 34 (5): 193–194. Bibcode:1924JBAA...34..193.
• Stevens, Catherine (May 1927). "Shadow Bands". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 37 (7): 277–278. Bibcode:1927JBAA...37..273.
• Stevens, Catherine (November 1932). "The Total Eclipse of the Sun of 1932 August 31". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 43 (1): 24–25. Bibcode:1932JBAA...43...24.

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

• 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,

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