Simon Newcomb Award
The Simon Newcomb Award is intended to encourage members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada to write on the topic of astronomy for the Society or the general public, and to recognize the best published works through an annual award.
Background
The award is named in honour of the astronomer Simon Newcomb (1835-1909) who was born in Nova Scotia and later served for twenty years as Superintendent of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac Office at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington. For more detail see this article in Science magazine. The award was created in 1978 by the National Council of the RASC on the initiative of the RASC Halifax Centre.
Who is Eligible?
Any member of the Society is eligible for the award. Nominations may be submitted by another member, a group of members, or an RASC Centre.
What Writing is Eligible?
An eligible entry should be a recently published piece of writing with an astronomical theme. This could be one of: a book or a portion of a book; an article in the Journal of the RASC, a Centre newsletter, or another RASC publication; an article in a commercially published magazine; and so on. A series of articles or a history of exemplary writing would also be considered eligible.
Judging
The Awards Committee will judge nominations according to several criteria, including: originality, literary merit, scientific accuracy, educational value, and promotion of the Society's objectives. The Committee is not bound to make an award in a given year if the nominated works do not meet a suitable combination of these criteria.
Submission of Nominations
Letters of nomination must include: (a) the name and address of the nominator; (b) the name, address, and RASC Centre affiliation of the nominee (if attached to a Centre); (c) the title(s) of the author's work(s) to be considered for distinction; (d) full publication details; and (e) a statement establishing the suitability of the author's writing.
The nominator may be requested to supply a good copy of the nominated work if it is not known to the members of the Awards Committee or not readily available.
Presentation
The award is a trophy which will be presented at the General Assembly and remains in the hands of the recipient until the following April. A cash prize of $250 will be awarded to the recipient by the RASC.