John Caister Bennett

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John Caister Bennett , also Jack Bennett (born April 6, 1914 in Estcourt , Natal , † May 30, 1990 in Pretoria ), was a South African civil servant and amateur astronomer .

John C. Bennett, called Jack, was born on April 6, 1914 in Estcourt, Natal. His mother was British and his father was from Tasmania . He attended school in Ficksburg and began to work in the public service after graduating in 1934 , initially for a short time in the forestry administration in Elgin, before moving to the administration of the Transvaal province in Pretoria. During World War II he served as a soldier in South Africa , Egypt and Italy . He was never married. In 1974 he retired from the public service. From 1985 he began to suffer from arthritis and soon afterwards his health deteriorated so much that he had to sell his house in Pretoria's Riviera neighborhood and move into a nursing home . He died on May 30, 1990 at the age of 76.

Amateur astronomer

Jack's interest in astronomy began early when his mother showed him the starry sky with the Southern Cross and the planets on his way home from evening church visits and told him about her observation of Halley's Comet on his return in 1910 .

After the war he started with a 60 mm - refractor according comet search, and from 1958 he observed the new artificial satellite . To this end, in 1961 he bought a lightweight 125 mm refractor with an azimuthal mount , which later became his favorite instrument. Early on he became a member of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa and the British Astronomical Association .

Although he discovered comets as early as the 1960s, he was either not the first to discover it, or the comets discovered were short-lived and could not be observed again. During this time (1969/1974) he systematically compiled a catalog of 152 objects in the southern sky that could be mistaken for a comet. This list, later called the Bennett catalog , is still a valuable aid for comet hunters today, a "southern Messier catalog ".

Every year he searched for about 150 hours for comets from the back yard of his house in Pretoria and discovered by chance on July 16, 1968 an unusual appearance of the galaxy M83 (NGC 5236) in the constellation Water Snake . Shortly afterwards this was recognized by professional astronomers as a supernova ( SN 1968L ). Jack Bennett was the first person to visually discover a supernova since the invention of the telescope .

With his 125 mm refractor he finally discovered his first comet C / 1969 Y1 (Bennett) after a search for more than 333 hours on December 28, 1969 , a "Great Comet" that could be seen with the naked eye the following year and worldwide admiration found among amateurs and astronomers. His second comet discovery took place on November 13, 1974 after a further 482 hours of search, the inconspicuous and shortly afterwards resolving C / 1974 V2 (Bennett) .

In later years he bought a Celestron C-8, but despite 30 to 40 hours of searching annually for the next 10 years, he had no further success in hunting comets, also because of the increasing light pollution . In addition to comets, he was also interested in meteors and variable stars . In the years before his death, he had to give up observing altogether and donated his famous 125 mm refractor to the University of South Africa .

Discoveries

  1. Supernova SN 1968L in the galaxy M83, discovered on July 16, 1968
  2. C / 1969 Y1 , discovered December 28, 1969
  3. C / 1974 V2 , discovered November 13, 1974

Honors

  • 1968–1969 - President of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA)
  • 1968–1985 - Director of the Comet & Meteor Section of ASSA
  • 1970 - ASSA's Gill Medal for Achievement in Astronomy with a special focus on Achievement in South Africa
  • 1971 - Merlin Medal of the British Astronomical Association (BAA)
  • 1974 - Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
  • 1975–1987 - Director of ASSA's Nova Search Section
  • 1976 - Nova Award from the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), Cambridge , Massachusetts , for his discovery of the supernova SN 1968L
  • 1977 - The new observatory and 32 cm telescope at ASSA's Pretoria Center are named Jack Bennett
  • 1986 - Master of Science ( hc ) from Witwatersrand University
  • 1989 - Honorary Member of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa
  • 1989 - An asteroid discovered in 1986 in the main belt is given the official designation (4093) Bennett after John C. Bennett.

After his death, ASSA's Pretoria Center donated the annual Jack Bennett Award for contributions to astronomy and the Center.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Astronomical Society of Southern Africa - JC Bennett (amateur astronomer). Retrieved December 27, 2015 (English, picture gallery by JC Bennett).
  2. ↑ a b J. S. Jones: Obituary JC Bennett (1914-1990) . In: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society , 35, 1994, p. 353 ( bibcode : 1994QJRAS..35..353J ).
  3. ^ A b John Caister Bennett 1914-1990 . In: Journal of the British Astronomical Association , 101, 6, 1991, p. 367 ( bibcode : 1991JBAA..101..367F ).
  4. ↑ a b J. A. da S. Campos: Obituary John Caister Bennett (1914-1990) ; B. Marsden: Jack Bennett - An Appreciation . In: Monthly Notes of the Astron. Soc. Southern Africa , 49, no. 9 & 10, 1990, pp. 113-115 ( bibcode : 1990MNSSA..49..113C ).
  5. ^ JC Bennett: Comet Hunting in Southern Skies . In: Monthly Notes of the Astron. Soc. Southern Africa , Vol. 28, No. 8, 1969, pp. 80-88 ( bibcode : 1969MNSSA..28 ... 80B ).
  6. ^ JC Bennett: Some Objects of Interest in the Southern Sky . In: Monthly Notes of the Astron. Soc. Southern Africa , vol. 33, no. 8, 1974, pp. 107-108 ( bibcode : 1974MNSSA..33..107B ).
  7. ^ Astronomical Society of Southern Africa - Jack Bennett's catalog of deep sky objects. Retrieved May 19, 2014 (with photo by JC Bennett).
  8. ^ RF Smith: Presentation of the Gill Medal to Mr. JC Bennett . In: Monthly Notes of the Astron. Soc. Southern Africa , 29, no. 9, 1970, p. 123 ( bibcode : 1970MNSSA..29..123S ).
  9. ^ British Astronomical Association - About the BAA: Awards and Medals. Retrieved May 19, 2014 .
  10. ↑ Honors for Jack Bennett . In: Monthly Notes of the Astron. Soc. Southern Africa , Vol 48, No. 11 & 12, 1989 ( bibcode : 1989MNSSA..48..113. ).
  11. ^ IAU Minor Planet Center. Retrieved May 17, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Bennett, John Caister
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bennett, Jack
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African civil servant and amateur astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Estcourt, Natal
DATE OF DEATH May 30, 1990
Place of death Pretoria