From Miss Clerke's obituary in The Times of London on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 1907:
The new century soon saw fresh honorary members elected, and among them Miss Agnes Clerke, whose last important work, 'Problems in Astrophysics,' was of such great scientific value that the Astronomical Society could no longer ignore her claims to public recognition by them. And when we say 'last important work' we must acknowledge also the outstanding merit of two earlier books, 'The System of the Stars' and 'History of Astronomy in the 19th Century,' besides less important volumes, 'The Herschels and Modern Astronomy,' 'Modern Cosmogenies,' and many scientific magazine articles, principally of the nature of reviewers or interpretation of results, in which her keen insight into the true significance of observed physical facts was so wonderful as her fluency and command of language, so that both from the literary and scientific standpoints she must be ranked as a great scientific writer. No one writing a history of modern astronomy can fail to acknowledge the great debt owed to the masterly army of facts in her 'history.' No worker in the vast field of modern sidereal astronomy opened by the genius of Herschel and greatly widened by the application of the spectroscope to the chemical and physical problems of the universe lacked due recognition by Miss Clerke, who performed as it seemed no other writer could have done the work of collation and interpretation of this enormous mass of new material, ever pointing the way to new fields of investigation, often by one pregnant suggestion sweeping aside a whole sheaf of tentative conjectures and indicating, if not the true line — for in many cases the truth is yet to seek — at least, a plausible and scientific line well worth pursuing. She will be missed at te meetings of the Royal Astronomical Society, aw which she was a constant visitor even before her election as an honorary member, and where her clear judgment was al times called upon to determine the value of some new suggestion in the domain of celestial physics. She was not a practical astronomer in the ordinary sense; but her death, on Sunday morning leaves a gap that will be hard to fill. She was the daughter of Mr. John William Clerke, who died in London in 1890. Her sister, “Miss E. M. Clerke” in The Times (1906)
Image of Ms. Clerke from Wikipedia.
*NASA Television will air a live program starting at 5:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 5, showcasing the celestial phenomenon of the planet Venus trekking across the face of the sun. The rare event, known as the Venus Transit, will not occur again until 2117.
The transit occurs when Venus passes directly between Earth and the sun. Viewers will see Venus as a small dot gliding slowly across our nearest star. Historically, viewed by luminaries like Captain James Cook and even Benjamin Franklin, this rare alignment is how we measured the size of our solar system.
There have been 53 transits since 2000 B.C. The last time the event occurred was on June 8, 2004, watched by millions worldwide. This year, observers on all seven continents will be in position to see it.
NASA TV coverage will include updates from NASA centers across the country and locations from some of the 148 countries hosting viewing activities. Images taken of the transit from the International Space Station and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Solar Dynamics Observatory also will be aired with scientists sharing their perspectives and the historical significance of the event.
NASA EDGE, a behind-the-scenes, informative webcast, will air the transit live from Mauna Kea, Hawaii. This location offers the best viewing position of the entire transit.
For more information about the worldwide events, safety precautions for viewing, educational content and social media activities, visit: http://venustransit.nasa.gov
For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
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