September 10th 1784 was a night to remember in the city of York because Beta Lyrae was found to be variable by the deaf astronomer John Goodricke who was observing from the Treasurer’s House in the city. It was the same night that Edward Pigott also observing from the city of York on that same night discovered that eta Aquila was also a variable star. When I was Curator of Astronomy at the Yorkshire Museum in York I christened these two the ‘Fathers of Variable Star Astronomy’.
