https://m.astronomy.com/news/2023/02/terence-dickinson-dies-at-age-79

By Alan Dyer | Published: February 2, 2023


First half:

Terence Dickinson, author of numerous popular books on astronomy and accomplished astrophotographer, passed away Feb. 1, 2023, following a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 79 years old.

Dickinson’s interest in astronomy began when he was only five years old, when he saw a shooting star streak across the sky. His professional career started in 1968 when he became a staff astronomer and teacher at the McLaughlin Planetarium of the Royal
Ontario Museum in Toronto. In 1970, Dickinson became assistant director of the trend-setting Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, New York.

Dickinson was a contributor to Astronomy magazine since its first issue in August 1973, and in 1974, he was recruited by the magazine’s publisher Stephen Walther to join its fledgling full-time staff. Dickinson served as the magazine’s executive
editor for two years in 1974 and 1975.

Readers may be most familiar with Dickinson as the author of the NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing The Universe (Camden House, 1983), as the guide has helped tens of thousands of people get started in the hobby of amateur astronomy. It has been in
print through several editions for forty years.

Dickinson also authored many other popular books, including The Universe and Beyond (Camden House, 1986), Hubble’s Universe (Firefly Books, 2012), and The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide (Firefly Books, 1994), co-authored with Alan Dyer, also an
Astronomy alumnus. In 1982, working with Astronomy magazine contributor Glenn Chaple and artist Victor Costanzo, Dickinson also created the classic Mag 6 Star Atlas for Edmund Scientific, now long out of print.

From 1995 until 2016, Dickinson edited and co-owned SkyNews, Canada’s magazine of stargazing. He stepped down from editorial duties when he learned of his diagnosis, selling the magazine to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, who brought on Gary
Seronik as the new editor.

From 1981 until the mid-2000s, Dickinson also wrote a weekly astronomy column for The Toronto Star newspaper, taking over the popular column from long-time author and legendary Canadian astronomer Helen Sawyer Hogg. Another of Dickinson’s regular
platforms for promoting astronomy was television, through frequent appearances in the late 1990s and early 2000s on Canada’s Discovery Channel...

(snip)


https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/terence-dickinson
(this lists some of his awards)

https://www.wartmanfuneralhomes.com/memorials/reginald-dickinson/5131548/
(short remembrance)

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/with-terence-dickinson-s-death-we-ve-lost-one-of-canada-s-most-illustrious-sets-of-eyes-on-the-skies-1.6735152
(longer one, with some book covers)

Excerpt:

...For more than 15 years in the 1980s and 1990s, Terry was a regular guest on Quirks & Quarks as our "Eye on the Sky," bringing us the latest news in astronomy or interesting facts about unusual objects in the universe. But my favourite episode was in
1994 when we asked him to come on — ostensibly to speak about the Orion Nebula.

The interview was suddenly interrupted by a call from Dr. Brian Marsden of the Harvard Smithsonian Institute for Astrophysics, informing Terry that asteroid 5272 was to be officially named Dickinson in his honour.

Terry was completely flabbergasted...


https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13250.Terence_Dickinson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Dickinson

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