Walter Frederick Gale

Walter Frederick Gale
Born27 November 1865
Paddington, Sydney, New South Wales
Died1 June 1945 (1945-07) (aged 79)
Waverley, New South Wales[1]
Occupation(s)banker, astronomer

Walter Frederick Gale (27 November 1865 – 1 June 1945)[2] was an Australian banker. Gale was born in Paddington, Sydney, New South Wales. He had a strong interest in astronomy and built his first telescope in 1884.[3]

He discovered a number of comets, including the lost periodic comet 34D/Gale. He also discovered five southern double stars with the prefix GLE, and several dark sky objects, including the planetary nebula, IC 5148 in Grus. In 1892, he described oases and canals on Mars. He was awarded the Jackson-Gwilt Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1935 for "discoveries of comets and his work for astronomy in New South Wales."[4]

A crater on Mars, Gale Crater, was named in his honour. It was selected as the 2012 landing site for the Curiosity Rover.[5]

  1. ^ "Obituary Notices :- Gale, Walter Frederick". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 106: 29. 1946. Bibcode:1946MNRAS.106Q..29.. doi:10.1093/mnras/106.1.29b.
  2. ^ "Walter Frederick Gale - RAS Obituaries". The Royal Astronomical Society. 27 November 1865. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
  3. ^ Harley Wood. "Walter Frederick Gale (1865–1945)". Biography — Walter Frederick Gale. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  4. ^ Wayne Orchiston; David A. Green; Richard Strom, eds. (2014). New Insights From Recent Studies in Historical Astronomy. Springer. p. 297. ISBN 978-3-319-07614-0.
  5. ^ "NASA Launches Sophisticated Rover on Journey to Mars". The New York Times. Associated Press. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.