Background
Albert Jones was born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1920 and was educated at Timaru Boys" High School.
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Albert Jones
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Timaru Boys" High School.
Career
At the beginning of the Second World War he joined the army, but in 1942 he was classified unfit for overseas service. He worked as a miller in a rolled oats mill, as a grocery shop owner and in a car assembly factory. He died in Nelson, New Zealand in 2013.
In 1963 he became the sixth astronomer in history to make 100,000 observations of variable stars and by 2004 he became the first to make more than 500,000 observations.
Acknowledgement His work has been widely acknowledged. In the 1987 Queen"s Birthday Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for services to astronomy.
The following year, asteroid 3152 Jones was named after him. The comet C/2000 W1 discovery brought him the Edgar Wilson Award, administered by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, in 2001.
In 2004 he received an honorary Doctorate of Science from the Victoria University of Wellington.
Achievements
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In 1963 he became the sixth astronomer in history to make 100,000 observations of variable stars and by 2004 he became the first to make more than 500,000 observations. His visual brightness estimates were very precise: most observers can distinguish variations of one tenth of a magnitude, but Jones" measurements were reported to show a standard deviation of about one twentieth of a magnitude. In 1946 he discovered the comet C/1946 P1 (Jones) and in 2000 he co-discovered, together with Japanese astronomer Syogo Utsunomiya the comet C/2000 W1 (Utsunomiya-Jones), becoming the oldest comet discoverer. In 1987 he co-discovered the supernova SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which was the brightest naked-eye supernova explosion since 1604.
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Born
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Died
September 11, 2013 (aged 93) -
Nationality
New Zealand
Education
Awards
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Officer of the Order of the British Empire Amateur Achievement Award; Merlin Silver Medal; Edgar Wilson Award
The Amateur Achievement Award is one of nine annual astronomical awards managed by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.; The Edgar Wilson Award is an annual international award established in 1998 consisting of a monetary award and a plaque allocated annually to amateur comet discoverers.The Amateur Achievement Award is one of nine annual astronomical awards managed by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.; The Edgar Wilson Award is an annual international award established in 1998 consisting of a monetary award and a plaque allocated annually to amateur comet discoverers.