George Eric Deacon Alcock, MBE (28 August 1912, in

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

– 15 December 2000) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

. He was one of the most successful visual discoverers of novae and

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...

s. George’s interest in astronomy was sparked by seeing the solar eclipse of 8 April 1921. His interest evolved into the observation 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 ...

s and meteor showers, and on 27 March 1935 he joined the

British Astronomical Association The British Astronomical Association (BAA) was formed in 1890 as a national body to support the UK's amateur astronomers. Throughout its history, the BAA has encouraged observers to make scientifically valuable observations, often in collaborati ...

. In 1953 he decided to start searching for

s and in 1955 began searching for novae. His technique was to memorize the patterns of thousands of stars, so that he would visually recognize any intruder. In 1959 he discovered comet C/1959 Q1 (Alcock), the first comet discovered in Britain since 1894, and only five days later discovered another, C/1959 Q2 (Alcock). He discovered two more comets in 1963 ( C/1963 F1 Alcock) and 1965. He later discovered his first nova, Nova Delphini 1967 (

HR Delphini HR Delphini, also known as Nova Delphini 1967, was a nova which appeared in the constellation Delphinus in 1967. It was discovered by George Alcock at 22:35 UT on 8 July 1967, after searching the sky for over 800 hours with binocular ...

), which turned out to have an unusual

light-curve In astronomy, a light curve is a graph of light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude of light received on the y axis and with time on the x axis. The light is usually in a particular freq ...

. He discovered two more novae, LV Vul (in 1968) and V368 Sct (in 1970). He found his fifth and final comet in 1983: C/1983 H1 ( IRAS-Araki-Alcock). In 1991 he found the nova V838 Her.

Honours and awards

Plaque to George Alcock, Peterborough Cathedral

Alcock became a Fellow of 3 British societies in 1947: the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Geographical Society, and the Royal Meteorological Society. He won the Jackson-Gwilt Medal of the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NG ...

in 1963. On 7 February 1979, Queen Elizabeth II conferred on him an MBE. In 1981 he received the International Amateur Achievement Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.Hurst, G. M. & Alcock, G. E. D. (April 2001)
Obituary: George Eric Deacon Alcock, 1912-2000
. ''Journal of the

'' vol.111 (no.2), pp. 64-66. Bibliographic Code: 2001JBAA..111...64H An asteroid, 3174 Alcock is named after him. He also maintained an active interest in

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did no ...

(the study of weather, unrelated to his interest in meteors). His achievements were fairly remarkable, and with the modern invention of CCDs and photometry and automated and computerized search programs that make his visual discovery techniques seem entirely quaint and obsolete, it is unlikely that such achievements will ever be repeated. In 1996, Genesis Publications published a limited edition signed biography, authored by Kay Williams, entitled "Under An English Heaven - The Life of George Alcock". After his death, a plaque was placed in

Peterborough Cathedral Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Pau ...

in his memory.

Personal life

In 1936 Alcock met Mary Green through their shared interest in astronomy. They were married 7 June 1941, and moved to the village of

Farcet Farcet is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Farcet lies approximately south of Peterborough city centre, between Yaxley and the Peterborough suburb of Old Fletton. Farcet is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non- ...

from 1955, in a house they called

Antares Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius. It has the Bayer designation α Scorpii, which is Latinised to Alpha Scorpii. Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is flanked by σ Scorpii and τ ...

, where Alcock discovered five comets and five nova.http://martinmobberley.co.uk/Alcock.html Mary died on 25 October 1991.

References

External links

* Martin Mobberley
George Alcock (1912-2000) remembered
* Ian Ridpath

The man with the astronomical memory. New Scientist 1982 December 16 {{DEFAULTSORT:Alcock, George 1912 births 2000 deaths 20th-century British astronomers Discoverers of comets Members of the Order of the British Empire People from Peterborough