George Alcock

This article is about the astronomer. For the association footballer, see George Alcock (footballer).

George Alcock
MBE
Born
George Eric Deacon Alcock

(1912-08-28)28 August 1912
Peterborough, Northamptonshire, England
Died15 December 2000(2000-12-15) (aged 88)
Known forDiscovery of comets and novae

George Eric Deacon Alcock, MBE (28 August 1912, in Peterborough, Northamptonshire[1] – 15 December 2000) was an English amateur astronomer. He was one of the most successful visual discoverers of novae and comets.

George’s interest in astronomy was sparked by seeing the solar eclipse of 8 April 1921.[2] His interest evolved into the observation of meteors and meteor showers, and on 27 March 1935 he joined the British Astronomical Association.[3] In 1953 he decided to start searching for comets 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), which turned out to have an unusual light-curve. 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.

  1. ^ GRO Register of Births: Births DEC 1912 3b 337 PETERBRO, mmn = Deacon
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference obit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "1935JBAA...45..220. Page 220". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 45: 220. 1935. Bibcode:1935JBAA...45..220. Retrieved 11 June 2021.