BAA Lunar Section
Dedicated to amateur research and observation of the Moon
The Moon: Notes and Records of the BAA Lunar Section
The New Moon journal (1983-2010)
Section history
History
of the BAA Lunar Section
Founded
in 1891, the BAA Lunar Section is as old as the British Astronomical
Association itself. Its roots actually go back further in time to the
short-lived but highly energetic Selenographical Society (1878-82),
many of whose members were leading lights in British lunar research
during the late Victorian and Edwardian era.
BAA
Lunar Section Directors (plus dates of office)
Thomas
Gwyn Empy Elger (1891-1896)
Walter
Goodacre (1896-1938)
T
L MacDonald (1938-1946)
Hugh
Percival Wilkins (1946-1956)
Ewen
A Whitaker (1956-1958)
Gilbert
Fielder (1958-1962)
Brian
Warner (1962-1964)
Patrick
Alfred Moore (1964-1968)
Ron
C Maddison (1968-1971)
Philip
A Ringsdore (acting, 1971)
Patrick
Alfred Moore (1971-1976)
Harry
S Ford (1976-1978)
Geoff
W Amery (1978-1987)
Peter
W Foley (1988-1992)
Jeremy
Cook (1992-1995)
Alan
Wells (1995-2009)
Bill
Leatherbarrow (current)
Biographical notes
Thomas
Gwyn Empy Elger (1836-1897)
Director:
1891-1896
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Thomas
Gwyn Empy Elger was an English lunar mapper and the first director
of the Lunar Section of the British Astronomical Association (BAA).
He was born in Bedford, where the family had been established for
several generations. His father Thomas Gwyn Elger (1794–April 4,
1841) was an architect and builder. Grandfather, father and son
engaged in the town politics, and all held the post of mayor.
He
studied at University College London and adopted the profession of a
civil engineer. He was engaged in several important works, including
the Metropolitan Railway and the Severn Valley Railway. His surveys
for railway construction in Holstein were put to a stop by the war
with Prussia and Austria in 1864.
Soon
afterwards he relinquished the active pursuit of his profession and
devoted himself to scientific studies. He had developed a strong
taste for astronomy already at an early age and erected his first
observatory in Bedford. Elger observed with an 8.5 inch reflector.
His sketches from 1884 to 1896 are now in the possession of the BAA.
He is best known as a careful and indefatigable selenographer, and
for this work his artistic skill eminently qualified him.
He
is most remembered for his book The Moon: A full Description and Map
of its Principal Physical Features. Published in 1895, its maps are
still highly regarded by lunar observers due to their uncluttered nature. He is remembered by the lunar crater Elger. |
Walter
Goodacre (1856-1938)
Director:
1896-1938
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Walter
Goodacre was a British businessman and amateur astronomer. He was
the second Director of the Lunar Section of the British Astronomical
Association. In 1910, he published a 77" diameter hand drawn map
of the Moon. In 1931, he self-published a larger book of maps of the
Moon's surface with descriptions of features.
Memoirs
of the BAA, Vol. 36, Part 1, 1947 October: Tenth Report of the Lunar Section
Memoirs
of the BAA, Vol. 36, Part 3 1950 July: Eleventh Report of the Lunar Section |
Thomas
Logie MacDonald (1901-1973)
Director:
1938-1946
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MacDonald was a Scottish politician who served as secretary and chairman of the West of Scotland branch of the British Astronomical Association. MacDonald also served as Director of the Lunar Section of the BAA from 1937-1945, and was particularly noted for a series of 'Studies in Lunar Statistics' published in the BAA Journal between 1929 and1940. In these he organized craters into four morphological classes, and established new relationships for predicting depth and rim height as a function of diameter. In 1985 the IAU added him as a second honoree under the name 'Thomas L. McDonald', but it appears he actually spelled his name 'MacDonald'.
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Hugh
Percival Wilkins (1896-1960)
Director:
1946-1956
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H. P. Wilkins in 1938. Image courtesy Eileen Coombes. |
Hugh Percival Wilkins was a Welsh-born engineer and amateur astronomer. He was born in Carmarthen, where he received his early education, then lived near Llanelli prior to moving to England. During the First World War he served in the Royal Army Corps. Professionally he worked as a mechanical engineer and a civil servant, but he is most noted for his efforts as an amateur astronomer, particularly as a selenographer. He was elected to the British Astronomical Association in 1918 and for a period he was the Director of the Lunar Section. He produced a 100" map of the Moon, which included new names for a number of features. In 1948 he put forward a request to the IAU that twenty-two new names be adopted. However he was turned down on the premise that the features were small or near the limb and already had letter designations. In 1951 he published a 300" diameter map of the Moon, considered by some as the culmination of the art of selenography prior to the space age. He made additional requests to the IAU in 1952 and 1955, which were turned down. However the Goodacre and Mee crater names from a 1926 map he had produced did become part of the lunar nomenclature. He also published a number of books intended to popularize astronomy, including two works in collaboration with Sir Patrick Moore. The most notable was his work, The Moon, which included a scaled-down version of his lunar map. Wilkins crater on the Moon is named after him.
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Ewen
A Whitaker
Director:
1956-1958
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Above: Whitaker and Wilkins, circa 1953, in the courtyard of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, pictured by Walter Haas.
Above: Ewen Whitaker 'proof reading' an LAC at the LPL in Tucson (from Kopal and Carder) Below: Whitaker today
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Ewen A. Whitaker succeeded Wilkins as Director, having specialised in lunar study since the early 1950s. In 1954 he produced the first systematic chart of the south polar regions. His tenure as Director was regrettably short since he was invited to America to join Gerard Kuiper's lunar team, first at Yerkes and then at Arizona, where it became the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Ewen Whitaker went on to become one of the most significant lunar scientists of the time, working on the Photographic Lunar Atlas, the Orthographic Atlas of the Moon and the Rectified Lunar Atlas, all of which were used by NASA in preparation for the Apollo programme. He also wrote a history of lunar cartography, Mapping and Naming the Moon (1999). In 1982 he was awarded the Goodacre Medal. |
Gilbert
Fielder
Director:
1958-1962
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Above: Gilbert Fielder in 1960 |
Gilbert Fielder was a professional scientist, specialising in the geology of the lunar surface. The author of several major books, including Structure of the Moon's Surface (1961), Lunar Geology (1965) and Geology and Physics of the Moon (1972), Fielder advanced a volcanic theory of crater formation. As Director of the Lunar Section he anticipated the declining importance of cartographic observation and constructed an observing programme that concentrated on the distribution of selected types of formation. The first studies of extraterrestrial geology were of the Moon. In the UK, a Lunar Group funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) was set up in the Astronomy Department at UCL in 1966, based at the University of London Observatory at Mill Hill in North London. However, there was no room for a new group in the observatory itself and UCL bought a house in nearby Daws Lane to accommodate the group. This was known as the Observatory Annexe. At that time, spacecraft observations of the Moon had just started, providing for the first time material that could be used by geologists to interpret the surface of that body. The great debate waged by geologists and astronomers was about the origin of the craters. Were they formed by volcanism or impact cratering? The founders of the group were Gilbert Fielder, a committed supporter of the volcanic origin of craters on the Moon, and John Guest, a volcanologist who was convinced by the new data that the lunar craters were of impact origin. The results from Apollo Missions left little doubt that lunar craters were of impact origin and confirmed that the dark maria were sheets of basaltic lava.
Gilbert Fielder
left UCL in 1971 to set up a new group at the University of Lancaster. Click to watch The Sky at Night (September 1960) featuring Gilbert Fielder (from the BBC archive) |
Brian
Warner
Director:
1962-1964
Patrick
Alfred Moore (1923 - present)
Director:
1964-1968, 1971-1976
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Above: Patrick Moore during his time as Director |
Sir
Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore, CBE, HonFRS, FRAS was born in Pinner,
England. Known as Patrick Moore, he is an amateur astronomer who has
attained prominent status in astronomy as a writer, researcher, radio
commentator and television presenter of the subject and who is
credited as having done more than any other to raise the profile of
astronomy among the British general public. He was born to Captain
Charles Trachsel Caldwell-Moore MC (died 1947) and Gertrude,
née White (died 1981 aged 94).
He
is a former president of the British Astronomical Association,
co-founder and former president of the Society for Popular Astronomy,
author of more than 100 books on astronomy, presenter of the longest
running television series (with the same original presenter), The Sky
at Night on the BBC, and a famous figure on British television (such
as being the Gamesmaster). He is well known for his rapid mode of
speech, trademark monocle, poorly fitting blazers, extremely high
trouser line and a fondness for the xylophone. |
Ron
C Maddison
Director:
1968-1971
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Dr R. C. Maddison was a professional astronomer employed in the Department of Physics of the University of Keele. He assumed the directorship at a difficult time, when results from Orbiter and other space probes were altering the nature of amateur lunar observation and the old cartographical approach was being supplanted by new methodologies. Ron Maddison recognised the shift that was taking place, and he undertook a major review of the Section observing programme in order to ensure that it remained relevant in the years that were to culminate in the Apollo manned Moon landings. |
Philip
A Ringsdore
Acting
Director: 1971
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Philip A. Ringsdore was a professional violinist who spent much of his life in Canada. Following his retirement he moved to Surrey and devoted his time to astronomy, which had long been a strong interest. He set up an observatory at his home in Ewell, equipping it with a 380mm reflector, and was a founder member of the Ewell Astronomical Society. He joined the BAA in 1964 and soon became Secretary of the Lunar Section. He was the first Editor of the monthly Lunar Section Circulars when they started in 1965. Following the resignation of Dr Ron Maddison as Director in 1971, Phil served as Acting Director until Patrick Moore returned as Director later that year. He was awarded the Association's Goodacre Medal in 1973. |
Patrick
Alfred Moore
Director:
1971-1976
Harry
S Ford
Director:
1976-1978
Geoff
W Amery
Director:
1978-1987
Peter
W Foley (1930-2008)
Director:
1988-1992
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Peter Foley (left) with Patrick |
Jeremy
Cook
Director:
1992-1995
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Jeremy Cook |
Alan
Wells
Director:
1995-2009
College lecturer by profession, based in Birmingham, England, Alan Wells is an amateur railway aficionado and railway model engineer.
Bill
Leatherbarrow
Current
Director
Email: director@baalunarsection.org.uk