The Webb Deep-Sky Society
Bob Argyle - Director of Double Star Section
| I was born in London but
spent 20 years in the North-East of England and 40 out of the last 45
years in Southern England.
I joined the Webb Society in 1968 and have served in most of the Committee posts since then, becoming Vice-President in 1983 and President in 1990. My main interest in is the observation of visual binary stars and I have been the Director of the Double Star Section since 1970. I have used the 28-inch refractor whilst at Herstmonceux and the 26.5-inch refractor at Johannesburg for micrometer measures (most recently in 2013). Since March 1990 I have been using the 8-inch Cooke refractor at the University of Cambridge Observatories - (built in 1864 and once owned by W. R. Dawes). I have compiled the 20 Double Star Section Circulars which have been issued since 1979 and authored the Society's Double Star Handbook (now long out of print). I have edited a book about visual double star observing which was published by Springer in 2004 (a second edition appeared in 2012), and contribute a monthly column on double stars to Astronomy Now and also on this website (see Double Star of the Month). I started work at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in 1972, spent four years on La Palma as a support astronomer and transferred to Cambridge in 1990 to work in the Carlsberg Meridian Telescope Group. When the RGO was closed I transferred to the Institute of Astronomy to work in the Astronomy Survey Unit. I retired in 2010, but continue as an Editor of Observatory magazine. In my spare time I still try and listen to classical music. My sense of humour encompasses radio shows such as The Goon Show, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue and cartoons such as the Far Side, and its successor The Argyle Sweater! |