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Current Honorary Members of the RASC

The following list describes the achievements and contributions of the Society's current Honorary Members:

Ralph B. Baldwin (USA)

Ralph Baldwin is a native of Michigan and a graduate of the University of Michigan. Due to a position as a part-time planetarium lecturer, he developed an interest in lunar topography. During the 1940s, he formulated the principles of current lunar geology: that lunar craters are the result of impact events, not volcanism; that the lack of active lunar erosion means that the craters are very old; that Earth should have been bombarded in the same way; and that there should be impact structures, large and small, still preserved on Earth. His first book "The Face of the Moon" (1949) was the generating force behind modern research in both terrestrial impact craters and lunar surface features. Seldom has a single book had such far-reaching consequences in the progress of science. Although the scientific community was slow to show interest in his ideas, today Baldwin is regarded with awe because he got so much so right so early! Also remarkable is that Baldwin's primary employment was, for many years, as an officer and then president of a manufacturing company, the Oliver Machinery Company. He is a past-president of the Wood Machinery Manufacturers of America.

David L. Crawford (USA)

Dr. Crawford, a native of Pennsylvania, is Emeritus Astronomer at Kitt Peak National Observatory and National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Arizona. From 1963 to 1973, he was Project Manager of the 4-metre Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak, and of its twin, the Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. His research involves galactic structure, stellar photometry, observational instruments and techniques, and light-pollution abatement. Dr. Crawford is widely-known as the co-founder and Executive-Director of the International Dark-Sky Association. He has worked tirelessly to promote energy-efficient, glare-free lighting, to the benefit of the public, the environment, and astronomy. Dr. Crawford has presented the IDA's message of responsible lighting to meetings of the RASC.

Audouin C. Dollfus (France)

Dr. Audouin Dollfus is a French astrophysicist who for many years was Head of the Laboratory for Physics of the Solar System at Meudon Observatory in Paris. He is a leading planetary observer. In the 1950s, Dollfus made several balloon flights for high-altitude observations of the Sun and planets, including the first stratospheric ascension in France. He was one of the first to notice brightness ripples in the rings of Saturn. In 1966, when the rings of Saturn were edge-on, he discovered the 10th satellite of Saturn, Janus, orbiting just outside the bright ring system. Janus was the first satellite of Saturn to be discovered in the 20th century.

Robert O. Evans (Australia)

Reverend Robert Evans, an Australian amateur astronomer, holds the world record for visual discoveries of supernovae: 40 as of 2006, more than the combined total of all other visual observers combined! Most of these were found using Newtonian telescopes of 10-, 12-, and 16-inch aperture from his backyard. His discoveries include several supernovae that, during the past quarter century, helped to establish the classification scheme for these colossal explosions, information that was needed for studying supernovae at remote distances, which led to independent estimates for the expansion, age, and fate of the Universe. Evans' success is a consequence of his life-long fascination with supernovae, and that he has memorized the appearance of more than 1000 galaxies and adjacent star fields down to 15th magnitude. Without star atlas or electronic aid, he can locate and examine galaxy after galaxy at a rate of about one a minute. As Chairman of the Supernova Search Committee of the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers) and as author of "Amateur Supernova Hunting" in the RASC Observer's Handbook, Rev. Evans is assisting observers world-wide in this endeavour.

Owen J. Gingerich (USA)

Born in Iowa and trained as an astrophysicist, Owen Gingerich's research has ranged from the theoretical computation of stellar spectra to an annotated census of the first two printed editions of Copernicus's "De Revolutionibus." Currently, he is a Senior Astronomer Emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and History of Science at Harvard University. Dr. Gingerich is a leading authority on both Johannes Kepler and Nicholas Copernicus. His books include "The Great Copernicus Chase and Other Adventures in Astronomical History" (1992). "The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler" (1993), "The Book Nobody Read" (2004), and "God's Universe" (2006). No fan of the Intelligent Design movement, in "God's Universe" Gingerich argues that an individual can be both a creative scientist and a believer in divine design, and that the very motivation for scientific research can derive from a desire to trace God's handiwork. In 1985, in Toronto, Dr. Gingerich gave the first annual Helen Sawyer Hogg Public Lecture.

Stephen W. Hawking (England)

Dr. Hawking is a British theoretical physicist and cosmologist, and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. He is a leader in the study of some of the most fundamental problems in physics and astronomy, notably the nature of gravity, its relation to the other forces and to quantum and particle physics, and its application to cosmology. One of his discoveries is that black holes should radiate as if they were hot bodies. Among Dr. Hawking's many honours was his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974. Two of his books are "The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime" with George Ellis (1973) and "A Brief History of Time" (1988), the latter being one of the most popular science books of all time. His accomplishments are even more remarkable because they have been made despite the fact that he is seriously afflicted by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. His genius, in the face of adversity, is an inspiration to scientist and layman alike.

Jean Meeus (Belgium)

Jean Meeus is a Belgian meteorologist and astronomer. Born in 1928, Jean Meeus studied mathematics at the University of Louvain (Leuven) in Belgium, receiving the Degree of Licentiate in 1953. From then until his retirement in 1993, he was a meteorologist at Brussels Airport. His special interest is in spherical and mathematical astronomy. He is the co-author of "Canon of Solar Eclipses" (1966 and 1983), and "Canon of Lunar Eclipses" (1979). His "Astronomical Formulae for Calculators" (1979, 1982, 1985, and 1988) has been widely acclaimed by both amateur and professional astronomers. Further works include "Elements of Solar Eclipses 1951-2200" (1989), "Transits" (1989), "Astronomical Algorithms" (1991 and 1999), "Astronomical Tables of the Sun, Moon and Planets" (1983 and 1995), "Mathematical Astronomy Morsels" (1997), "More Mathematical Astronomy Morsels" (2002), and "Mathematical Astronomy Morsels III" (2004).

Patrick Moore (England)

Born in England in 1923, Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore has been England's pre-eminent popularizer of astronomy for the past half century, and he continues to be an ambassador for astronomy. He was elected a member of the British Astronomical Association while he was still a school-boy, and became its president 50 years later. During World War II, he served with the Royal Air Force. He established his private observatory at Selsey, in Sussex, U.K., where he specializes in observations of the Moon and planets. In 1957, he was invited by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to present a new television series "The Sky at Night," and it has become the longest-running program of its kind. In 1967, Patrick Moore was awarded the Order of the British Empire. In 2001, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his services to astronomy.

Jay M. Pasachoff (USA)

Dr. Pasachoff is the Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy and Director of Hopkins Observatory at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, U.S.A. His research involves planetary atmospheres, the interstellar medium, and solar physics. He has observed many total solar eclipses while pursuing studies of the solar chromosphere and corona. Dr. Pasachoff has an international reputation for his contributions to education in astronomy. He is the author of many school- and university-level textbooks on science and introductory astronomy, plus astronomical field guides for the general public.

Phillip James Edwin Peebles (USA)

Dr. Peebles is a native of Winnipeg and a graduate of the University of Manitoba (B.Sc. in physics, 1958). He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1962, and currently is a professor of physics at Princeton. In the mid-1960s, he and his colleagues predicted that thermal electromagnetic radiation from the very early Universe should be detectable by radio telescopes, that this radiation should be isotropic, and that it should have the spectrum of a black body only a few degrees above absolute zero. Coincidentally, about the same time (in 1965), Penzias and Wilson of the Bell Telephone Laboratories accidentally discovered this radiation. Dr. Peebles has investigated characteristics of the radiation and the clustering of galaxies. He has calculated the universal abundances of helium and other light elements, demonstrating agreement between Big Bang theory and observation. His two books on physical cosmology had a significant impact in convincing physicists that the time had come to study cosmology as a respectable branch of physics. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1982.

Leif J. Robinson (USA)

Leif Robinson is Editor Emeritus of Sky & Telescope. He joined the magazine in 1962 and served as its Editor from 1980 until his retirement in 2000. Not only has Robinson made a major contribution to the dissemination of astronomical knowledge through nearly four decades at Sky & Telescope, but he remains active in matters astronomical and continues to write for that magazine. His tenure at Sky & Telescope saw the introduction of electronic calculators, personal computers, CCDs, the Internet, the placement of astronomical instruments in space, the opening of the entire electromagnetic spectrum to astronomy, and the advance of cosmology from a neglected backwater to a major field of research. As Lief Robinson has said, "Good science reporting ain't easy! At S&T we always work terribly hard to get it right." Astronomers, amateur and professional, are in his debt for a lifetime spent conveying astronomy to those who have the vision to appreciate the mystery and grandeur of the cosmos.

Allan R. Sandage (USA)

Born in Iowa, Dr. Sandage is Staff Astronomer Emeritus with the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and a senior research scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute. His research has involved stellar evolution, galaxies, the extragalactic distance scale, the value of the Hubble Constant, the deceleration parameter, and the age of the Universe. Early in his career, he joined the Hale Observatories, initially as an assistant to Edwin Hubble. Using the Hale 5-metre telescope at Palomar Observatory, Sandage continued and expanded upon Hubble's pioneering cosmological observations on a large number of fronts. His lifetime contribution to extragalactic observational astronomy and cosmology, and his influence on his colleagues, is unmatched by any other astronomer during the past half century. He received the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1971, and in 2001 he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society.

William P. Sheehan (USA)

Dr. Sheehan is a practicing psychiatrist, amateur astronomer, experienced Mars observer, a contributing editor to Sky & Telescope, historian of astronomy, and first-rate author. His books include, "Planets & Perception" (1988), "Worlds in the Sky" (1992), the first biography of one of the greatest observers of all time, "The Immortal Fire Within: The Life and Work of Edward Emerson Barnard" (1995), "The Planet Mars" (1996), "In Search of Planet Vulcan" (with Richard Baum, 1997), "Epic Moon" (with T.A. Dobbins, 2001), "Mars" (with S.J. O'Meara, 2001), and "Transits of Venus" (with J. Westfall, 2004). He is currently working on a biography of W.W. Morgan. Sheehan is noted for his meticulous research and eloquent prose. His biography of Barnard is a classic.

Carolyn Shoemaker (USA)

Born in New Mexico, Carolyn Shoemaker is one of the world's foremost Solar System astronomers. She was a Guest Observer at Palomar Observatory for 12 years, and currently is Research Professor of Astronomy at Northern Arizona University and a staff member at Lowell Observatory. For 14 years, Carolyn worked with her late husband, Eugene, on the Palomar Asteroid and Comet Survey, a project of rare vision, of uncommon dedication, and of profound significance regarding the long-term future of life on this planet. Carolyn Shoemaker has discovered more than 800 asteroids, including 44 near-Earth asteroids. Also, she has found 32 comets, more than anyone else in history. One of her discoveries was Shoemaker-Levy 9, the first comet observed to collide with a planet. The spectacular impact of SL9 with Jupiter in 1994 was one of the defining moments in the history of astronomy. For 17 years, Carolyn spent several months each year with Eugene in the Australian Outback searching for and studying craters from earlier impacts. They carried out one of the most scientifically fruitful pioneering efforts of our time, amassing data relevant to estimating the rate of large impacts on Earth. Carolyn and Eugene participated in two RASC General Assemblies: Windsor in 1995, and Kingston in 1997. Carolyn gave the Ruth Northcott Lecture at the Windsor GA.

R. Brent Tully (USA)

R. Brent Tully is an astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu, Hawaii. His specialty is the astrophysics of galaxies. He, along with J. Richard Fisher, proposed the now-famous Tully-Fisher relation in a paper, A New Method of Determining Distances to Galaxies, published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 54, No. 3, in February, 1977. He also published the book The Nearby Galaxies Catalog in 1988, with 3-D locations for the closest 68,000 galaxies to Earth (this information taken from Wikipedia).

An historical list of all RASC Honorary Members can be found here.