(meteorobs) A Man who Loved the Stars

[Kim Youmans]

Thanks for bring this to our attention, George.  I especially found the 
following bit of Feibelman ingenuity quite amazing....(from obit)

...In addition to his unusual observations of Saturn, Mr. Feibelman 
developed a unique and ingenious method for observing faint objects near 
bright stars. Most astronomers would use a mirror to block the bright 
object, so that its faint companions were easier to see. Mr. Feibelman, 
however, would go into a photographer's darkroom and poke a hole in his 
photographic film; after loading his camera, he would align the hole with 
the bright star.

"He found a number of objects that way," Gatewood said. He was known for 
that sort of out-of-the-box thinking....





Kim Y.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "George Gliba" <gliba at milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov>
To: <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 4:06 PM
Subject: (meteorobs) A Man who Loved the Stars


>
> Meteorobs Folks,
>
>  I have some sad news for those of you who didn't know, the well known and
> admired GSFC astronomer Walter A. Feibelman passed away about a month ago 
> at
> the age of 79. I just learned about it today. He was a professional 
> astronomer
> at GSFC since 1969, and wrote over 200 scientific papers, mostly about hot
> stars and planetary nebulae. He was also the discoverer of Saturn's 
> E-Ring.
> Before he became a professional, we was an enthusiastic amateur 
> astronomer.
> Then he was a prolific telscope maker and active meteor observer. He was 
> very
> generous and gave away many telescopes and ATM material he was no longer 
> using
> to me and other amateur astronomers.  He inspired me to get back into 
> meteor
> observing after several years of inactivity.
>
>  He did most of his early visual meteor observing for the IGY. In August 
> 1961
> he discovered the Alpha Ursa Majorid minor meteor showwr during his 
> Perseid
> campaign. See Gary Kronk's C&MS at:
> http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/alpha_ursa_majorids.html
> This minor meteor shower is probably periodic. I saw several in 1993 while
> attending the Stellafane Convention in Vermont. This year, here at 
> meteorobs,
> some other observers talked about seeing activity from this radiant.
>
>  Even though he was in poor health and in a nursing home, he still looked 
> out
> his window to see the 2001 Leonids, and saw several fireballs, in spite of 
> the
> bad lights from the parking lot down below. He was a man who loved the 
> stars.
>
>  An obituary on him is at:   www.post-gazette.com/pg/04336/419714.stm
>
> Sincerely,
> G.W. Gliba
>
> ---
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