The first female astronomer, Hypatia of Alexandria, lived as a saint and died as a martyr of Science. In the latter role she precedes Galileo and Giordano Bruno.
I propose remembering Hypatia annually on the day of the vernal equinox, since her last days were dedicated to finding the exact time for it.
By Alexandria local time, the vernal equinox in the years 2016-2050 falls on the same date as in 415 – March 20 – the ideal date in our era to commemorate the first female astronomer.
The paper that explains the circumstances of her murder is available here (since March 2016): http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/1570072...
The earlier paper, which carried the initial insight, was published in 2010: http://astrogeo.oxfordjournals.org/content/51/2/2.9.full
This is historical material “frozen in time”. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.
