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Following the end of the Second World War, the CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory applied the expertise and surplus radar equipment acquired during the war to problems of astronomy. Gordon Stanley was among the first group of scientists and engineers to work in the exciting new field of radio astronomy. Like many of his contemporaries, he had a strong background in radio and electronics but none in astronomy. At the Radiophysics Laboratory, and later at Caltech, Stanley developed innovative new radio telescopes and sophisticated instrumentation which resulted in important new discoveries that changed, in a fundamental way, our understanding of the Universe. He was one of those who played a key role in the early development of radio astronomy both in Australia and the United States.

AbstractOwen Bruce Slee is one of the pioneers of Australian radio astronomy. During World War II he independently discovered solar radio emission, and, after joining the CSIRO Division of Radiophysics, used a succession of increasingly more sophisticated radio telescopes to examine an amazing variety of celestial objects and phenomena. These ranged from the solar corona and other targets in our solar system, to different types of stars and the ISM in our Galaxy, and beyond to distant galaxies and clusters of galaxies. Although long retired, Slee continues to carry out research, with emphasis on active stars and clusters of galaxies. A quiet and unassuming man, Slee has spent more than half a century making an important, wide-ranging contribution to astronomy, and his work deserves to be more widely known.

AbstractRobert Innes was one of a select band of amateur astronomers who made the transition to professional ranks towards the end of the nineteenth century. Initially he had a passion for mathematical astronomy, but after settling in Sydney he developed a taste for observational astronomy, specialising in the search for new double stars. He quickly became known for his success in this field and for his publications on solar system perturbations, and with John Tebbutt's patronage managed to secure a clerical position at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope. Once there he continued to observe in his spare time and to publish, and, with strong support from Sir David Gill, was appointed founding Director of the Transvaal Observatory. By the time he died in 1933, Innes had received an honorary D.Sc. from Leiden University, and had established an international reputation as a positional astronomer.This paper provides an interesting case study of a well-known ‘amateur-turned-professional’, and an example of the ways in which patronage played a key role in nineteenth and early twentieth century Australian and South African astronomy.

This paper was first published in Astronomy and Geophysics (December 1998, Vol. 39) by the Royal Astronomical Society and the Institute of Physics Publishing Ltd and is reproduced here, with minor amendments, by kind permission of the Editor, Dr Sue Bowler. William Wales (1734–1798) contributed to astronomy through his observations of the 1769 transit of Venus, and his studies of latitude and longitude on Captain James Cook's second voyage to the South Seas. During this voyage, Wales was responsible for monitoring the performance of the chronometers. After returning from the Pacific, Wales took charge of the Royal Mathematical School at Christ's Hospital in London and, over the next two decades, he taught a succession of budding officers the principles of navigation.

AbstractAustralasian amateur astronomers, Grigg and Ross, discovered four different comets between 1902 and 1907. Controversy surrounding these discoveries led to a deterioration in relations between Australia's leading amateur astronomers and Baracchi at Melbourne Observatory, and to the eventual transfer of the ‘Australian Central Bureau’ to Sydney Observatory.

AbstractAs an experiment, special holiday programs for primary school children were offered by the Carter Observatory during two different school holidays in 1995. One program focussed on Mars and the other on the Sun. This paper describes the two programs, expands on their strengths and weaknesses from different viewpoints, and (despite their overwhelming popularity) outlines the reasons why the Observatory has decided not to offer further holiday programs of this type in the foreseeable future.

Although scientific astronomy has a long and illustrious history in Australia, it was not until 1895 that the first astronomical society was formed. This was the New South Wales Branch of the British Astronomical Association (see B.A.A. 1894-5; Gale 1895a,b), and before the end of the century it was joined by others in Melbourne and Brisbane (B.A.A. 1897-8; Editor’s Note 1979; Ellery 1901:13; Thomson 1897). These societies and their predecessors, the Astronomy Branches of the Royal Societies of New South Wales and South Australia (Waters 1980), were the mainstay of astronomical activity – both professional and amateur – in nineteenth century Australia, providing as they did regular meetings, library facilities, and avenues for publication and celestial observation.

Australian astronomers have a proud history of comet-discovery, beginning with Rumker of Parramatta Observatory in 1824 (Baracchi 1914), and culminating with the outstanding achievements of Bill Bradfield of Adelaide. In the intervening one hundred and fifty years there have been a number of other notable comet-hunters and comet-observers, the most successful being John Tebbutt (see Orchiston 1981, 1982a, 1982b), Walter Gale, David Ross, and J. F. Skjellerup. Comets discovered by these Australian astronomers, and others, are listed in Marsden’s 1982 Catalogue of Cometary Orbits.

AbstractDuring the second half of the nineteenth century Australian amateur and professional astronomers worked together in actively promoting astronomy among the general public. This collaboration was a product of the cordial amateur-professional relations that permeated pre-astrophysics Australian astronomy.