Walter Scott Houston (May 30, 1912–December 23, 1993) was an American popularizer of
amateur astronomy. He wrote the "
Deep-Sky Wonders" column in ''
Sky and Telescope
''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following:
*current events in astronomy and space exploration;
*events in the amateur astronomy community;
*reviews of astronomic ...
'' magazine from 1946 to 1993.
Biography
Houston was born in Tippecanoe, Wisconsin, in 1912. He attended the University of Wisconsin where he earned a degree in English. After graduating, he taught at universities and public schools in Wisconsin, Ohio, Alabama, Kansas, Missouri and Connecticut. During World War II he was an instructor at the Advanced Navigation School for Army-Air Force pilots at
Selman Field in Louisiana. In 1960 he moved to Connecticut where he became an editor for American Education Publications. He remained in this position until his retirement in 1974.
[
]
Contributions to amateur astronomy
As a boy, Houston learned to build microscopes and telescopes and developed an interest in amateur astronomy. He soon observed all 103 nebulae and star clusters in the
Messier catalog
The Messier objects are a set of 110 astronomical objects catalogued by the French astronomer Charles Messier in his ''Catalogue des Nébuleuses et des Amas d'Étoiles'' (''Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters'').
Because Messier was only int ...
. While at the
University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
he began observing
variable star
A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as e ...
s and in 1931 he joined 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. ...
(AAVSO). Eventually, he contributed more than 12,000 variable star observations to AAVSO.
While living in Kansas in the 1950s, Houston undertook radio monitoring of
meteor
A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space.
Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mi ...
activity. His group operated the first automated data collection system designed by amateurs for continuous, long-term collection of meteor event data.
[
] The same method forms the basis for most
forward scatter
In physics, telecommunications, and astronomy, forward scatter is the deflection—by diffraction, nonhomogeneous refraction, or nonspecular reflection by particulate matter of dimensions that are large with respect to the wavelength in question ...
automated detection systems used today, although other methods are available.
In 1955, Houston recruited a few dozen people as satellite spotters for
Operation Moonwatch. In 1958, his Moonwatch station in
Manhattan, Kansas
Manhattan is a city and county seat of Riley County, Kansas, United States, although the city extends into Pottawatomie County. It is located in northeastern Kansas at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. As of the 2020 c ...
, was the first to catch sight of
Explorer I
Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States in 1958 and was part of the U.S. participation in the International Geophysical Year (IGY). The mission followed the first two satellites the previous year; the Soviet Union ...
, the United States' first satellite.
[
Houston was active in raising funds for the project, by giving talks about satellite watching and asking for contributions. He was so successful that the president of Kansas State University included Houston's team in his annual science research summary, and the Physics Department donated equipment to the group.]deep sky objects
A deep-sky object (DSO) is any astronomical object that is not an individual star or Solar System object (such as Sun, Moon, planet, comet, etc.). The classification is used for the most part by amateur astronomers to denote visually observed f ...
. His final column appeared in 1994, the year after his death. He also published a regional newsletter called ''The Great Plains Observer'' that was circulated to several thousand amateur astronomers.
Mars moon hoax
In 1959, Houston perpetrated a celebrated April Fool's hoax when he included an article in the April edition of the Great Plains Astronomical Society journal:
Just last week Dr. Arthur Hayall of the University of the Sierras reports that the moons of Mars are actually artificial satellites... They are truly space stations in the most elaborate sense of the word... even though the race that flung them so magnificently into orbit may be dead and gone, they still orbit as the greatest monument to intelligent accomplishment yet known to mankind.
Both Dr. Hayall and the University of the Sierras were fictitious.
The hoax soon gained worldwide attention in May 1959 when a similar theory was proposed by Soviet scientist Iosif Shklovsky
Iosif Samuilovich Shklovsky (russian: Ио́сиф Самуи́лович Шкло́вский; sometimes transliterated ''Josif, Josif, Shklovskii, Shklovskij'') (1 July 1916 – 3 March 1985) was a Soviet astronomer and astrophysicist. He ...
in an interview with '' Komsomol Pravda''. Gerald Kuiper of the Yerkes Observatory
Yerkes Observatory ( ) is an astronomical observatory located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, United States. The observatory was operated by the University of Chicago Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics from its founding in 1897 to 2018. Owner ...
was quoted as saying about Shklovsky, "He is much too brilliant to believe such nonsense."
Honors
The main-belt asteroid 3031 Houston, discovered by Edward Bowell
Edward L. G. "Ted" Bowell (born 1943 in London), is an American astronomer. Bowell was educated at Emanuel School London, University College, London, and the University of Paris.
He was principal investigator of the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth ...
at Anderson Mesa Station
Anderson Mesa Station is an astronomical observatory established in 1959 as a dark-sky observing site for Lowell Observatory. It is located at Anderson Mesa in Coconino County, Arizona, about 12 miles southeast of Lowell's main campus on Mars H ...
in 1984, was named in his honor.[personal witness]
Books by Houston
* ''Deep-Sky Wonders'', a collection of his columns from ''Sky & Telescope''.
References
External links
* Th
"Walter Scott Houston Award"
of the North East Region Astronomical League
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, Walter Scott
1912 births
1993 deaths
20th-century American non-fiction writers
Amateur astronomers
American science writers