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. Cook observed the 7 November 1914
transit of Mercury from her observatory. In January 1916 Cook was among the first group of women elected as Fellows of the
Royal Astronomical Society. 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. 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. Cook observed
comets and Milky Way
novae and was among the first people to see
V603 Aquilae, a nova discovered in June 1918. This work earned her the
Edward C. Pickering Fellowship from the
Maria Mitchell Association in 1920–1921. From 1921 to 1923 Cook was sole director of the British Astronomical Association's Meteor Section. 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. ==Publications==