Wil Tirion

[taminga16]

Speaking with a friend today who told me that Wil Tirion has passed away 19 February 1943 – 5 July 2024.
Riposare in Pace.

[strongmanmike]

Sad news, particularly for his family, I still use his charts during visual sessions, simple but still effective, while preserving one's night vision.

Mike

[Robh]

As you would probably know the IAU doesn't define the stick figure shapes that help in navigating the stars within a constellation. The IAU only define the boundaries.

In fact, it can get pretty confusing navigating a constellation when people use "non-traditional" stick figure shapes. Wil Tirion pretty much defined a particular set of these "traditional" constellation figures over a period of forty years or more. His Stars and Planets of 1984 had stick figures for every constellation. I have just about worn out the third edition printed in 2000.

You could say he pretty much created a norm for these stick figures, which have been adopted by many other people and published in many astronomy books/atlases e.g. by the famous Patrick Moore (Philips Guide to Stars and Planets) and our own Massey and Quirk (Atlas of the Southern Night Sky).

As another example, SkySafari's stick figures are also very similar to his.

Rob

[AstralTraveller]

Indeed, I used Sky Atlas 2000 and Uranometra 2000 last night. His legacy will last for ages.

[Matthieu]

It’s sad to hear. I’ve been using his Cambridge Star Atlas and yearly guide to the night sky. He’s created quite the legacy in our hobby.