Colin Ronan
{{Short description|British author (1920–1995)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{EngvarB|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Colin Alistair Ronan
|image =
|image_size =
|caption =
|nationality =
|birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1920|6|4}}
|birth_place = London
|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1995|6|1|1920|6|4}}
|death_place =
}}
Colin Alistair Ronan FRAS (4 June 1920, in London – 1 June 1995) was a British author and specialist in the history and philosophy of science.{{cite journal
| last = Moore
| first = P.
| author-link = Patrick Moore
| title = Colin Alistair Ronan (1920–1995)
| journal = Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society
| volume = 37
| number = 1
| pages = 93–94
| publisher = Royal Astronomical Society
| date = 1996
| bibcode = 1996QJRAS..37...93M
| last = Moore
| first = P.
| author-link = Patrick Moore
| title = Colin Alistair Ronan (1920–1995)
| journal = Journal of the British Astronomical Association
| volume = 105
| number = 5
| page = 262
| publisher = British Astronomical Association
| date = 1995
| bibcode = 1995JBAA..105..288M
}}
Education
Colin Alistair Ronan was educated at Abingdon School in Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire from 1934 to 1937.{{cite web|url=https://www.abingdon.org.uk/uploads/school/files/abingdonian/1934_May_V007_N011.pdf#page=2|title=Salvete|publisher=The Abingdonian}}
Military service
He served in the British Army from 1940 to 1946, achieving the rank of major.
Career
After the war, he obtained a BSc in Astronomy and took an administrative post at the secretariat of The Royal Society. There, he did an MSc in the History and Philosophy of Science under Herbert Dingle at University College London.
After leaving the Royal Society he took up writing, and during a long career, he was an author produced over forty books, mainly on astronomy, and the history and philosophy of science. Later, he collaborated with Joseph Needham on an abridgement of Needham's great work on China, producing The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China in several volumes.
He was elected to the British Astronomical Association (BAA) on 26 January 1938.{{Cite web|title=1938JBAA...48..185. Page 185|url=http://cdsads.u-strasbg.fr/full/1938JBAA...48..185.|access-date=2021-06-13|website=cdsads.u-strasbg.fr}} He went on to be Historical Section Director from 1953 to 1965, Journal Editor from 1965 to 1985, and President from 1989 to 1991, during which time the association celebrated its centenary.{{cite web|url=http://www.britastro.org/history/section.history.html|title=BAA Historical Section – A Brief History|publisher=British Astronomical Association}} On the 12 February 1943 Ronan was elected to the fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society.{{Cite web|title=1943MNRAS.103....1. Page 1|url=http://cdsads.u-strasbg.fr/full/1943MNRAS.103....1.|access-date=2021-06-13|website=cdsads.u-strasbg.fr}}
In 1991, Ronan delivered a Presidential Address to the BAA in which he argued that Leonard Digges, father of Thomas Digges was the originator of the reflecting telescope sometime between 1540 and 1559, over a century before Isaac Newton, who is usually credited with having built the first such telescope around 1668.[http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1991jbaa..101..335r&defaultprint=YES&filetype=.pdf Ronan, Colin A. "The Origins of the Reflecting Telescope." Journal of the British Astronomical Association 101 (1991): 335–342]
For a considerable period in the 1980s and early 1990s, he collaborated with Sir Patrick Moore in lecture tours. They took the form of weekend residential symposia on single topics such as the return of Halley's Comet. Notable and hilarious, the interplay between Ronan's sober and intellectual analysis along with Moore's more extravagant character led frequent disagreements that were usually solved over several bottles of red wine. The weekends were an enormous success and made a valuable and irreplaceable contribution to the amateur astronomical scene.
With his second wife, Ann, he founded the Ronan Picture Library, which specialises in scientific and historical pictures. Among his many books on the history of science were studies of scientists such as Galileo, William Herschel and Edmond Halley. He also wrote scientific books for children, along with books such as The Practical Astronomer (1981), written for beginner amateur astronomers.{{cite web|url=http://worldhistoryarchive.co.uk/ann-ronan-picture-library|title=The Ann Ronan Picture Library|publisher=ANN RONAN PICTURE LIBRARY|access-date=3 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170104001204/http://worldhistoryarchive.co.uk/ann-ronan-picture-library|archive-date=4 January 2017|url-status=dead}}
He was the Space Consultant on the puppet sci-fi TV series Space Patrol, created and written by Roberta Leigh in 1962. Ronan is listed in the end credits.Source DVD, "Roberta Leigh's Space Patrol, The Complete Series", Network, 2003.
Ronan had an asteroid named in honour of his achievements: 4024 Ronan belongs to the Floras family, discovered by E. Bowell on 24 November 1981 at Anderson Mesa Station.{{cite web|url=http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?utf8=%E2%9C%93&object_id=4024|title=(4024) Ronan = 1931 GJ = 1957 WB1 = 1976 JX1 = 1981 WQ|publisher=IAU Minor Planet Center}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book | title=Universe: The Cosmos Explained| publisher=Quantum Books | year=2007}}
- {{cite book | title=The Universe Explained | url=https://archive.org/details/universeexplaine0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access=registration | publisher=Henry Holt, Thames and Hudson | year=1994}}
- {{cite book | title=Science Explained | url=https://archive.org/details/scienceexplained00rona | url-access=registration | publisher=Henry Holt | year=1993}}
- {{cite book | title=The Natural History of the Universe | publisher=Transworld Publishers, Macmillan | year=1991}}
- {{cite book | title=Science: Its History & Development Among the World's Cultures | publisher=Facts on File | year=1985}}
- {{cite book | title=The Skywatcher's Handbook: Night and Day, what to look for in the Heavens above | publisher=Corgi, Crown | year=1985}}
- {{cite book | title=Amateur Astronomy-A Comprehensive & Practical Survey | publisher=Newnes Books | year=1984}}
- {{cite book | title=Science: Its History and Development among the World's Cultures | url=https://archive.org/details/scienceitshistor00rona | url-access=registration | publisher=Facts on File | year=1983}}
- {{cite book | title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of the World's Science | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1983}}
- {{cite book | title=Atlas of Scientific Discovery | publisher=Crescent Books, Apple Press | year=1983}}
- {{cite book | title=Deep Space | publisher=Scribner | year=1982}}
- {{cite book | title=The Practical Astronomer | publisher=Macmillan, (Crescent 1988, Bloomsbury 1992) | year=1981}}
- {{cite book | title=Encyclopedia of Astronomy | publisher=Hamlyn | year=1979}}
- {{cite book | title=The Shorter Science and Civilization in China (with Joseph Needham) | publisher=Cambridge University Press in 5 volumes | year=1978–1995}}[http://www.cambridge.org/series/sSeries.asp?code=RCSC&srt=P]
- {{cite book | title=Greenwich Observatory: 300 years of astronomy | publisher=Times Books | year=1975}}
- {{cite book | title=Galileo | publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Putnam | year=1974}}
- {{cite book | title=Astronomy: Illustrated Sources in History | publisher=David and Charles, Barnes and Noble | year=1973}}
- {{cite book | title=Lost Discoveries: The Forgotten Science of the Ancient World | publisher=McGraw Hill | year=1973}}
- {{cite book | title=Discovering the Universe: A History of Astronomy | url=https://archive.org/details/DiscoveringTheUniverse | publisher=Basic Books 1971, Heinemann 1972 | year=1971}}
- {{cite book | title=Book of Science | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1971}}
- {{cite book | title=Sir Isaac Newton | publisher=International Textbook Company 1971, Shire 1976 | year=1971}}
- {{cite book | title=Edmond Halley: Genius in Eclipse | publisher=Doubleday | year=1969}}
- {{cite book | title=Astronomers Royal | publisher=Doubleday | year=1969}}
- {{cite book | title=Their Majesties' Astronomers | publisher=Bodley Head | year=1967}}
- {{cite book | title=Invisible Astronomy | publisher=Eyre and Spottiswood 1967, JB Lippincott Co 1972 | year=1967}}
- {{cite book | title=The Meaning of Sound | publisher=Hart Publishing Company | year=1967}}
- {{cite book | title=The Ages of Science | publisher=George G Harrup Co | year=1966}}
- {{cite book | title=Exploring Space | publisher=Odhams Books Limited | year=1966}}
- {{cite book | title=The Easy Way to Understand Photography | publisher=Max Parrish | year=1966}}
- {{cite book | title=The Universe | publisher=Franklin Watts, NY, later OUP | year=1966}}
- {{cite book | title=The Stars (Natural Science Picture Books) | publisher=McGraw Hill, Bodley Head Children's Books | year=1965}}
- {{cite book | title=Man Probes the Universe – The Story of Astronomy | publisher=Natural History Press | year=1964}}
- {{cite book | title=Optical Astronomy-Changing Horizons | publisher=Phoenix House, Roy Publishers | year=1964| bibcode=1964oach.book.....R }}
- {{cite book | title=The Astronomers | publisher=Evans Brothers | year=1964}}
- {{cite book | title=Radio and Radar Astronomy | publisher=Doubleday | year=1963}}
- {{cite book | title=Clocks and Watches | publisher= Doubleday | year=1962}}
- {{cite book | title=The Meaning of Light | publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson | year=1962}}
- {{cite book | title=Changing Views of the Universe | publisher=Eyre and Spottiswood, Macmillan | year=1961}}
- {{cite book | title=The Earth from Pole to Pole | publisher=George G Harrup Co | year=1961}}
See also
References
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Category:20th-century British astronomers