Ben Mayer (1925 in Germany – 28 December 1999) was an

amateur astronomer Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers m ...

perhaps best known for the invention of the projection blink comparator (PROBLICOM), a low-cost version of the

blink comparator A blink comparator is a viewing apparatus formerly used by astronomers to find differences between two photographs of the night sky. It permits rapid switching from viewing one photograph to viewing the other, "blinking" back and forth between th ...

. This inexpensive tool allowed amateur astronomers to contribute to some phases of serious research. Professionally, Mayer worked as an

interior design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...

er. Mayer was the first ever to photograph a

nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

in its brightening phase. On the night of August 29, 1975, Mayer was using an automatic camera to photograph the sky, hoping to track meteors large enough to survive entry into the Earth's atmosphere. After learning of the nova, he realized it was in the part of the sky he was photographing. He retrieved his negatives from the trash (there were no meteors on the photographs) and found a series of images of

Nova Cygni 1975 __NOTOC__ V1500 Cygni or Nova Cygni 1975 was a bright nova occurring in 1975 in the constellation Cygnus. It had the second highest intrinsic brightness of any nova of the 20th century, exceeded only by CP Puppis in 1942. V1500 Cygni ...

in several stages of brightening. Mayer was a member of the

American Association of Variable Star Observers The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is an international nonprofit organization, founded in 1911, focused on coordinating, analyzing, publishing, and archiving variable star observations made largely by amateur astronomers. ...

and a frequent lecturer at the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference. In 1982 he won the Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Perhaps the best words summarizing Mayer's contributions and style appeared in The Griffith Observer memorial as written by

Ed Krupp Edwin Charles Krupp (born November 18, 1944) is an American astronomer, researcher, author, and popularizer of science. He is an internationally recognized expert in the field of archaeoastronomy, the study of how ancient cultures viewed the sky ...

, Director of the Griffith Observatory in the June, 2000 edition (Vol 64, No. 6).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer, Ben American astronomers Amateur astronomers 1925 births 1999 deaths German emigrants to the United States