Hi All,
As many of you will know the choice of destination for the next NASA Mars
Rover “Curiosity” has been made; the Martian crater Gale.
And here is the Sydney astronomy/amateur astronomy connection: This crater is named for Walter Frederick Gale, a banker and very prominent Sydney based amateur astronomer whose career in astronomy overlapped the later careers of John Tebbutt and Henry Russell.
Gale owned several telescopes including Newtonians and refractors observing mainly from the inner suburban Sydney at Paddington – just 4km as the crow-flies from Sydney Observatory. He was a founding member and later President of the NSW branch of the B.A.A that met for years beyond count at Sydney Observatory. The B.A.A is nowadays known as the Sydney City Skywatchers and still meets at Sydney Observatory. He was also Chairman of the Board of Visitors for Sydney Observatory for more than 20 years between 1913 and 1937. Gale is in effect one of the earliest predecessors of my manager at Sydney Observatory and was likely involved in night-tours of our observatory (just like me).
Gale was an gifted and avid observer of Jupiter, Saturn and particularly Mars. He was one of many astronomers worldwide who reported observations of “canals” on Mars. He also discovered seven comets and found many pairs (double stars). Best of all, he discovered one of my favourite planetary nebulae: IC 5150 in the constellation of Grus in 1894 with a 9¼” reflector. Gale later won the Jackson-Gwilt medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1935 for services to astronomy in NSW.
Here is a short biography on Walter written by … former NSW Government Astronomer Harley Wood.
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gale...frederick-6269
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=34176
http://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ic51a.htm
In another curious personal connection for myself, Gale’s grandfather was Charles Windeyer who was the Chief Magistrate for NSW. I spent many a long day sitting under his “bust” that adorns the wall in the No 1 Court at Central Court in Liverpool St, Sydney when I was the senior police prosecutor at that complex. I spent much of that time dreaming about what I was going to observe later that night.
Best,
Les D
