'The Lady Computer of Strabane' - BBC Ulster Radio Broadcast
As the North experienced its first solar eclipse since 1999, BBC Radio Ulster aired a radio programme, which reflected on the life of Strabane-born Annie Maunder – a pioneering astronomer, solar photographer, eclipse hunter, and VCB past pupil!
In Stories in Sound: Lady Computer of Strabane, listeners learned more about Maunder and her path from late 19th century Strabane, to Ladies Collegiate School, which later became Victoria College, to the Greenwich Royal Observatory where she was employed as one of their ‘lady computers’.
The presenter Anne-Marie McAleese finds out about how Annie’s work made great advances into the link between sunspot activity and the earth’s long term climate. The programme features a visit the British Astronomical Association to see the journals that she edited, and a visit to Victoria College Belfast where members of the Astronomy club are interviewed.
The 30-minute radio programme also talks to experts in the field explain why the work she did a hundred years ago is still so relevant to astronomers today, and why she should be remembered as one of Northern Ireland’s most pioneering women and scientists.
The programmes can be accessed via the links below.
