astronomy

George Alcock

George Alcock is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand George Alcock rather than just read about it. In short: George Eric Deacon Alcock (28 August 1912 – 15 December 2000) was an English amateur astronomer. He was one of the most successful visual discoverers of novae and comets.

Key takeaways

George Alcock belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect George Alcock to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of George Alcock from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

George Eric Deacon Alcock (28 August 1912 – 15 December 2000) was an English amateur astronomer. He was one of the most successful visual discoverers of novae and comets. Born in Peterborough, Northamptonshire, the son of a railway worker, George’s interest in astronomy was sparked by his first encounter with the solar eclipse of 8 April 1921. His interest evolved into the observation of meteors and meteor showers, resulting to him joining the Meteor Section of the British Astronomical Association on 27 March 1935, while training to be a teacher. He balanced his pursuit of astronomy with his full-time teaching career, moving between temporary posts before obtaining a permanent position in 1937. While serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he saw action in North Africa and Italy, and was court-martialed three times. In 1953, he started his search for comets and in 1955 for novae. His technique involved memorization of the patterns of thousands of stars, so that he would visually recognize any intruder. In 1959, he discovered comet C/1959 Q1 — the first comet discovered in Britain since 1894. After five days, he discovered another, named C/1959 Q2. He discovered two more comets in 1963 (C/1963 F1) and 1965 (C/1965 S2). His first Nova was Delphini 1967 (HR Delphini), which turned out to have an unusual light-curve. He discovered two more novae, LV Vul (in 1968) and V368 Sct (in 1970). He found his fifth and final comet in 1983: C/1983 H1 (IRAS-Araki-Alcock). In 1991 he found the nova V838 Her.

Honours and awards

Alcock became a Fellow of three British societies in 1947 — the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Geographical Society, and the Royal Meteorological Society. He won the Jackson-Gwilt Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1963. On 7 February 1979, Queen Elizabeth II conferred on him an MBE. In 1981, he received the International Amateur Achievement Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Asteroid 3174 Alcock is named after him. Outside of astronomy, he maintained a multitude of other active interests, notably in meteorology (the study of weather, unrelated to his interest in meteors)., natural history (specifically ornithology and botany), and church architecture. In 1996, Genesis Publications published a limited edition signed biography, authored by Kay Williams, entitled "Under An English Heaven - The Life of George Alcock". After his death, a plaque was placed in Peterborough Cathedral in his memory.

Personal life In 1936, Alcock met Mary Green through their shared interest in astronomy. They were married on 7 June 1941, and moved to the village of Farcet from 1955, in a house they called Antares, where Alcock discovered five comets and five nova. Mary died on 25 October 1991. The couple had no children.

References

External links Ian Ridpath. New Scientist The man with the astronomical memory. New Scientist 16 December 1982

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with George Alcock

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what George Alcock claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to George Alcock before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about George Alcock ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of George Alcock

In research: George Alcock appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses George Alcock in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: George Alcock is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1912 births, 2000 deaths, 20th-century English astronomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for George Alcock outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study George Alcock in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what George Alcock means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain George Alcock out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is George Alcock in simple terms?

George Eric Deacon Alcock (28 August 1912 – 15 December 2000) was an English amateur astronomer. He was one of the most successful visual discoverers of novae and comets.

Why does George Alcock matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study George Alcock?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on George Alcock.