| Birth date | 27 November 1865 |
|---|---|
| Birth place | Paddington, Sydney, New South Wales |
| Death place | Waverley, New South Wales[1] |
| Occupation | 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 total of 3 comets, including the lost periodic comet 34D/Gale, C/1894 G1 and C/1912 R1. 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, was named in his honour. It was selected as the August 6, 2012, landing site for the Curiosity rover.[5]
References
- ^ "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
- ^ "Walter Frederick Gale - RAS Obituaries". The Royal Astronomical Society. 27 November 1865. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
- ^ Harley Wood. "Walter Frederick Gale (1865–1945)". Biography — Walter Frederick Gale. Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Archived October 14, 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "NASA Launches Sophisticated Rover on Journey to Mars". The New York Times. Associated Press. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.