Alexander FI Forbes

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Alexander Forbes Irvine Forbes (born April 13, 1871 in Kinellar, Aberdeenshire , Scotland , † May 15, 1959 in Cape Town ) was a South African architect and amateur astronomer of Scottish origin.

Origin and occupation

Forbes grew up in Scotland. His father was an amateur astronomer who built his own telescope . They lived on the "Blairythan" estate of David Gill , who would later become Her Majesty's Astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope . This is how the love of astronomy awoke early in Forbes.

In 1896, he first came to South Africa, he lived in Woodstock, a suburb of Cape Town, and worked until 1907 on the building when he returned to Scotland in Aberdeen Art and Architecture to study. He completed his studies in 1909, became a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and finally returned to South Africa, where he worked as an architect in Cape Town until 1932. At the time he was living in the Cape Town district of Rosebank and built his own small observatory with a self-made 8-inch reflector next to his “Craigie Brae” property.

In 1912 he participated as an architect with a design in the tender for the planning of the new Australian capital Canberra and was one of the 46 participants whose designs were shortlisted.

After reaching retirement age, he went to Hermanus in 1932 , about 90 km southeast of Cape Town, where he again built a private observatory next to his “Blairythan” estate there. He did not give up his profession entirely, however, but continued to work as an architect to a lesser extent for the next 20 years. Forbes was a very talented and inquisitive, but humble person who did not seek the public. He had many hobbies, in Hermanus he also did oil painting and painted landscapes.

For health reasons, he finally returned to Cape Town in 1956, where he spent a few years in his niece's house. He died in 1959 at the age of 88.

Honorary positions

Forbes was an early member of the Cape Astronomical Association, founded in 1912, of which he was already serving as treasurer when it merged with the Johannesburg Astronomical Association in 1922. The result was the Astronomical Society of South Africa, later renamed the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA). At the new society he was a deputy councilor from 1923 to 1932 and acted as treasurer, as well as committee member and treasurer of their Cape Town department. From 1926 to 1930 he was librarian, from 1925 to 1945 director of the Comet Section and from 1934 also director of the Society's Zodiacal Light Section . From 1937 he was a council member and was elected President of the Society from 1942 to 1943.

Forbes regularly lectured on astronomical subjects and made many contributions to the Society's publications, both on comets and astronomical instruments. As an architect, he was particularly interested in the construction of observatory domes and the mounting of instruments. In a paper he described the mounting of the 5 m mirror telescope at the Palomar observatory , of which he also created a scale model, which is now in the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town.

Comet discoveries

Forbes discovered four comets :

  1. 27P / Crommelin , rediscovery of the periodic comet observed in 1818 and 1873 on November 19, 1928
  2. 37P / Forbes on August 1, 1929
  3. C / 1930 L1 (Forbes) on May 31, 1930
  4. C / 1932 Y1 (Dodwell-Forbes) December 15, 1932

Awards

  • 1929, 1930, 1932 - Awarded the Donohoe Comet Medal by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for his comet discoveries. He was thus four times prize winner, namely the 123rd, 127th, 137th and 149th.
  • 1958 - Appointed honorary member of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ To Ideal City? - The shortlist of 46th National Archives of Australia - National Capital Authority - National Library of Australia, accessed March 29, 2018 .
  2. ↑ The Old Church Auction Galleries - Lot 200: Alexander Forbes Irvine FORBES (1871 - 1959) OIL. Invaluable, LLC., Accessed June 7, 2016 .
  3. ^ AFI Forbes, MIA (Obituary). In: Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa. Vol. 18, 1959, pp. 50-51 ( bibcode : 1959MNSSA..18 ... 50. ).
  4. ^ WW Campbell, S. Einarsson, HM Jeffers: One Hundred and Twenty-third Award of the Donohoe Comet Medal. In: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Vol. 41, 1929, pp. 72-74 doi: 10.1086 / 123911 ( bibcode : 1929PASP ... 41 ... 72. ).
  5. ^ WW Campbell, S. Einarsson, HM Jeffers: One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Award of the Donohoe Comet Medal. In: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Vol. 41, 1929, pp. 368-369 doi: 10.1086 / 123974 ( bibcode : 1929PASP ... 41..368. ).
  6. ^ WW Campbell, S. Einarsson, HM Jeffers: One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Award of the Donohoe Comet Medal. In: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Vol. 42, 1930, pp. 367-369 doi: 10.1086 / 124076 ( bibcode : 1930PASP ... 42..367. ).
  7. ^ RG Aitken, S. Einarsson, HM Jeffers: One Hundred and Forty-ninth Award of the Donohoe Comet Medal. In: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Vol. 45, 1933, p. 35 doi: 10.1086 / 124389 ( bibcode : 1930PASP ... 42..367. ).
  8. ^ IS Glass: Biographical index to MNASSA and JASSA. In: Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa. Vol. 62, 2003, pp. 302-309 ( bibcode : 2003MNSSA..62..302G ).
personal data
SURNAME Forbes, Alexander FI
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Forbes, Alexander Forbes Irvine (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African architect and amateur astronomer of Scottish origin
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Kinellar, Aberdeenshire , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1959
Place of death Cape Town , South Africa