(1863-1940) President of the Society (1926-27).

ANDREW F. HUNTER (1863-1940) joined the Astronomical Society in the 1880s while he was a student in Mathematics and Physics at the University of Toronto. He had grown up near Barrie, about 80 km north of Toronto, and returned there as owner and editor of the local newspaper following graduation in 1889. He became a town Councillor in Barrie and was a talented amateur archaeologist and local historian. His History of the County of Simcoe is still a valuable reference work. He also had a lasting interest in geology stemming from his employment with the Canadian Geological Survey 1904-08. All this probably explains why he held no office in the Society for many years, but after he returned to Toronto in 1913 to become Librarian and Secretary of the Ontario Historical Society, he was able to take a more active part in the RASC. From 1918 until 1927 he was successively Recorder, Secretary, Vice-President and President. Host of the lectures he gave to the RASC and articles he wrote for the Journal relate to atmospheric phenomena, halos and the like, and the aurora.

—Peter Broughton (from Looking Up)

Further Reading

• Obituary, JRASC (November 1940)
• A Laymen's Diary of Halley's Comet, 1910, JRASC (June 1910)
• Is There a Morning Maximum of the Aurora? JRASC (March 1915)
• A Prismatic Arc, JRASC (June 1916)
• Sunset Phenomena and the War, JRASC (February 1917)
• Distorted Solar Halos, JRASC (January 1918)
• The Solar Halo of February 4th, 1918, JRASC (April 1918)
• Some Special Forms of Halos, JRASC (November 1918)
• Rainbows, Fogbows and Their Associated Phenomena, JRASC (December 1921)
• The Astronomical Work of Samuel Holland, First Surveyor General of Canada, 1764-1801, JRASC (September 1924)
• The New (Bombardment) Theory of the Aurora, JRASC (November 1925)
• Recent Work in Astronomy, and its Allied Subjects, in Canada, JRASC (December 1926)
• Some Advances during the Past Year in Astronomy and its Allied Subjects, JRASC (December 1927)
• Two Optical Phenomena Observed, JRASC (March 1928) with P.M. Millman