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As with all of you, I am totally shocked and devastated at the news of Erwins passing.
I first met Erwin at a meeting of the Brisbane Astronomical Society, where I was trying to encourage members to join with a group to observe the Leonids in 2001 near Miles. Erwin attended as a visitor then, as he was only holidaying in Australia, and he was enthusiastic of the venture. He returned to the Netherlands to finalise his affairs there, pack a shipping container with the bulk of his equipment, then to return to Australia for a new life here.
Anne-Louise (heavy with child) and I met him at Miles after he had travelled down from Darwin, bussed it out to Charleville, then hooked up with us. For the next few days and nights we watched clouds drift by (at night totally overcast of course) and he showed us some newsletters from his club in the Netherlands. We discussed film, photography and lenses. I was attempting to use a truck hubcap to capture all sky images, and he started rattling off equations and formulae to determine the focal ratio of the setup.
On the night of the expected peak we were treated to an amazing thunderstorm at dusk, and we expected to have the evening clear up for observing... and the skies were fabulous. Until the next band of storms blew through... and the next... and the next. I thought that once again we were going to miss the shower due to the weather, aspecially after it continued to rain after midnight.
Most of us retired to our respective cabins while Erwin remained near the site we had chosen to observe. While Anne-Louise and Brendan, who was sharing with us, slept I was writing the Newsletter article about this trip. Suddenly I heard running footstes splashing down the track toward us... BANG BANG on the door and our excitable Dutch friend was shouting "It has started, I saw a gap in the clouds, I saw two meteors, it has started we must go, we must go now, it has started!!!" Anne-Louise, Erwin and mysel drove down the road about 10 k's, but the clouds didn't lift, ad we just stopped and waited.
In the west, the sky started to break, and Erwin said "Not a Storm... we see nothin now". A few minutes the Leonids made their presence known as meteor after meteor flashed throught the breaks in the clouds. In half an hour we had horizon to horizon of clear skies streaked by hundreds of meteors. We observed to dawn and the sky turned blue and still we saw them. Just before sunrise the sky closed in again.
It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen in my life, and the memory of it will remian with me until I die. All the more special will be my memory of Erwin's voice in the darkness, elated, frustrated, suprised, but always enthusiastic.
I have run out of words at this time.
We will miss him greatly.
Tony Surma-Hawes
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