CMO/OAA
Former Director of of the BAA Saturn Section;
Alan W HEATH
Alan W HEATH,
living at Long Eaton,
Alan HEATH at the
It was not so long ago however when the CMO began to win Alan W HEATH's favour, but it was in July 1991 that the CMO first
received his letter (see #107 on 25 July 1991) which showed his interest in
Hiroshi ISHADOH's independent discovery of the White
Spot on the planet Saturn in October 1990 (described in CMO #96 pp821~823, 10
Nov 1990), and ever since we have been happy to receive his observations of
Mars and other information, along with which we also received several interesting
photographs: When we wrote (in # 108 p927) about the late Edward COLLINSON, Former Director
of the BAA Mars Section, he was so kind as to send us readily a nice portrait
of the Director at the BAA Exhibition taken on 31 May 1978. Alan HEATH is really
a good photographer, and for a period we saw several nice photographs having a
credit line "photo: Alan Heath" in the several issues of the JBAA; the photos showing the BAA
exhibition hall, snapshots of BAA members and so on. This implied we did seldom
see the photographer himself on the pages, but eventually we were directly
given his portrait in 1992 which showed himstanding
on the prime meridian line at Greenwich on 22 June 1992 on the occasion when he
joined a BAA meeting at Lambeth (here cited as Photo 1, taken by a different
camera from the one hanging from his shoulder, but this well shows the
photographer Alan HEATH).
As he kept himself out of sight from the pages,
Alan HEATH was modest in writing up every year the BAA Saturn Section Report in
the sense that he seldom used his drawings of Saturn but instead used drawings
of other observers like R McKIM, D GRAHAM, D GRAY and
others, and in this way he looked to encourage and inspire the younger
generation. It will be fortunate for us to be able to cite his recent drawing
of Saturn (on 20 July 1995) in which the rings was hidden (see also another one
cited in CMO #167 p1715).
Saturn without rings sketched by A HEATH
on 20 July 1995 at 02:30GMT by the use of 190-318x 30cm Reflector
As to photographs, we should further note that he
is not an occasional photographer, but a keen natural history photographer.
Alan is also an active naturalist specialising in freshwater microscopy: He is
as much as at home with a microscope as with a telescope, and thus he continues
to record pond life for Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. Currently he is Chairman of
Long Eaton Natural History Society and Chairman of Friends of Forbes Hole,
local nature reserve which he helped to save from industrial developers.
Alan HEATH thus finds all forms of natural science
interesting and challenging, and he even finds time to study geology, but as we
are very concerned, he is a traditional amateur astronomer in
In Japan, Alan was introduced long ago as a BAA
Saturn observer at the same time together with another famous HEATH (M B B HEATH) by Takeshi SATO in an introductory Japanese book
on planetary observation and, as far as we judge, every Japanese reader of CMO
has known who A W HEATH is, including the fact that M B B
HEATH was no relative of Alan. We should also note that SATO introduced the
predecessor Rev T E R PHILLIPS in the same book.
Interest of Alan HEATH in astronomy started at a
very early age: He learnt the constellations and main
stars from navigation charts during the 'black out' time of WWII. His first
astronomical observation was recorded in 1945, that being a partial eclipse of
the Sun when he was 14 years old. After finishing a period of national service
in the medical branch of the Royal Air Force, Alan became an active observer in
1952. It was during this year that he joined the Nottingham Astronomical
Society and obtained a 5cm refractor, an instrument which he still uses for
solar observation. Membership of the Nottingham Astronomical Society proved for
him very valuable as it was here that the late W E FOX took him under his wing.
W E FOX was then Director of the BAA Jupiter Section. A year
later Alan joined the BAA. He quickly recognised the value of the 
Lunar
and Planetary observation as well as Solar observation, and in 1954 he
constructed a home made 20cm Newtonian reflector which was altazimuth
mounted. It was later housed in an observatory and in regular use until 1963.
A W HEATH in 1963
The year 1963 was an epochmaking
year to Alan HEATH. It was in that year that the BAA made available to him on
loan a 30cm reflector which originally was made by George CALVER (1834~1924)
and belonged to the Rev T E R PHILLIPS. Photos 2, 3 and 4 show those taken in
1963; Photo 2 shows the new telescope with young proud Alan, Photo 3 the A W
Heath Observatory whose roof opens for access to the sky, and Photo 4 shows the
inside the observatory which rotates on a circular angle iron track.
A W HEATH Observatory in 1963:
The whole building rotates on angle iron track
30cm Reflector in1963 
In the same year, Alan was appointed Director
of the BAA Saturn Section. He served about thirty years as Director. He wrote
every year the BAA Report in the JBAA, and hence he has a lot of old
acquaintances like Walter HAAS, and has trained younger generations. His
telescope is still used by him actively. The mirror had been replaced by a new
one (polished by H WILDEY in 1961), but the external appearance remains the
same: Photos 5, 6 and 7 show the present status of the telescope and the
observatory. In Photo 5 the observatory is taken from an angle different to
Photo 3, while the digital numbers remains still clearly visible which read 52°54'22"N,
01°17'14"W and 37M. Note that the small refractor is seen
attached which is for solar work. Photos 6 and 7 tell us the details of the
outwards of the telescope.
Alan served the BAA as Assistant to Director
of the Jupiter Section and as Secretary of the Lunar Section in addition to the
Director of the Saturn Section. There was a period of six months when 
all
three offices were held by him at the same time. He was also Acting Director of
the Solar Section and committee member of the Terrestrial Planets Section.
Along with others, he helped pioneer the use of colour filters visually in the
BAA. He really tells us of the use of an apodising
screen (CMO #130 p1204). In 1986 the BAA awarded him the Walter Goodacre Medal.
HEATH
Observatory at present
Alan
HEATH is now retired, while he was a primary school teacher as profession:
Formerly a hairdresser in a family business, Alan had a change of career in
1970. He gained a Bachelor of Education Degree from 
30cm Calver Reflector at present
To
retire does not mean to be simply relaxed to him. He still pursues more
vigorously any thing that he find fascinating. He is not a sports man for he
says --- "I would rather do something interesting". He does however
ride a bicycle and when he was teaching he rode some 20km each day to and from
school. The bicycle is still used after retirement and further exercise is
provided by walking a labrador
dog and trips into countryside looking for wild flowers, insects and other
creation of nature.
Astronomy
and other scientific pursuits make his life so interesting and this has made
Alan many friends throughout the world. We hope he still continue to be a whole
naturalist and to be a good friend of our CMO members.
Drawing of Mars by PHILLIPS
on 18 Sept 1909 (272°Ls, ω=310°W, φ=20°., Dia.=24")
(surely made by the 30cm Calver spec)
Before
closing, we here want to cite some copies of the Mars drawings by the Rev T E R
PHILLIPS when he used the 30cm reflector of which use Alan HEATH succeeded.
Drawings by the Rev were not necessarily made by the 30cm Calver
spec. His Observatory at Headley, Surrey to the south of
Theodor E R PHILLIPS was
born in 1868 in Leicestershire and died in 1941 near Headley, and hence Alan
did not have the opportunity of meeting him: slight other coincidental fates
between them may be inferred from the facts that it was the planet Saturn that
PHILLIPS happened to first see (in 1892 or 93) by a small refractor to be
allured to the stellar objects, that PHILLIPS was the first recipient of the
Walter Goodacre Medal of the BAA (in 1930), that the
Rev liked the genial air of the Surrey countryside with summer wild flowers as
Alan also likes the countryside of Nottingham with wild flowers and insects and
maybe birds, and so on. Note that PHILLIPS thus started late his career as an
astronomer: When he was first fascinated by the sight of Saturn, he was already
a young curate of parish of Holly Trinity at
Fig 3: Drawing of Mars by PHILLIPS on 27 Nov
1913 (001°Ls, ω=339°W, φ=12°N)
Fig 4: Drawing of Mars by PHILLIPS on 03 Jan 1914 (019°Ls, ω=319°W,
φ=07°N)
Fig 5: Drawing of Mars by PHILLIPS on 17 Jan
1914 (026°Ls, ω=174°W, φ=04°N)
Fig 6: Drawing of Mars by PHILLIPS on 09 Feb
1916 (055°Ls, ω=175°W, 
φ=20°N )
PHILLIPS
joined the BAA in 1896 (just one hundred years ago!), and observed
systematically Jupiter and Mars by a 22.5cm spec on an altazimuth
mount. In 1901 he was appointed Director of the BAA Jupiter Section, and kept
the office until 1934. In 1916 he became the Rector of Headley, and had an
observatory near the Rectory in which the three telescopes were contained. The
study of Jupiter was carried out at this place until 1939. Takeshi SATO
appreciates him as a "Father of the
Jupiter Observation". E W FOX writes that "as a planetary
draughtsman he was probably unsurpassed". Besides the planetary work,
PHILLIPS also studied the variable stars and observed the double stars. He also
served the RAS as well as the BAA.
The
Rev PHILLIPS was known as an inspiring person, and each year on a Saturday
afternoon in June, the Rev PHILLIPS and Mrs PHILLIPS had the "annual
visitations" from his guests at the Headley Observatory: The atmosphere of
the Rectory and the milieu of the Observatory must have been impressive to the
participants in the season. On Saturday evening, however contrarily to us, he
must have not been able to spend much time in observing the planets or inviting
guests, even if the sky fine, because he must have prepared his sermons in
church on the following Sunday morning. In 1940, he suddenly became poor in
health, and at the beginning of 1941 he retired and moved to Walton on the Hill
near Headley (the spire was seen from Walton on the Hill). About three months
before he passed away, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science
from the
We
are not informed of what the observatory became of and how his 30cm reflector
was handed to the BAA and eventually to Alan HEATH,
but the telescope which had mostly been used for Jupiter, now became used
mainly for Saturn. We should further say that both of the Rev PHILLIPS and Alan
HEATH observed (and observes) the red planet, and thus we have a friendly
feeling to the telescope which can be said to have witnessed the planet Mars
for nearly one hundred years.
Alan
HEATH, on the occasion when fragments of Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit the surface of
Jupiter in July 1994, observed of course the phenomenon by the use of the Phillips 30cm reflector and, actually seeing the
spectacle, must have thrown his thoughts back to the eyes of the Rev PHILLIPS.
Alan wrote afterwards in a short note (in Proceedings of the Meeting on P/Comet
SL-9 Impact 
with
Jupiter, edited by S KIMURA, published by Committee for JAAC) that "How
both would dearly have loved to see this." Here "both" implies
the Rev PHILLIPS and W E FOX. Really Alan took out a 7.5cm refractor which had
originally belonged to W E FOX, and pointed also the telescope to the troubled
but specutacular Jovian
surface.
The Photo here is Comet Hyakutake (C/1992 B2) taken by Alan HEATH on 29 march 1996
at 20:40GMT by the use of a 200mm lens at f/5/6 for one minute on Tri-X
Acknowledgements:
The present writer is much indebted to A HEATH and T SATO for information and
several documents. As to the life of the Rev T E R PHILLIPS, the article in JBAA 79(1968)1 given by W E FOX was referred to, which was addressed as
a commemoration of the centenary of the birth of the Rev PHILLIPS. The drawings
by the Rev PHILLIPS are cited from the Reports
of the Mars Section in Memoirs of the BAA vol 20
part 2 (1915) and vol 21 (1920), the former treating
the 1909 apparition and the latter the 1913/14 and 1915/16 apparitions (both
written by E M ANTONIADI).
(Masatsugu MINAMI)
This was published in 1996 in CMO #176 (25 June 1996 issue).
The Calver telescope was returned later to the BAA, and Alan HEATH
newly built an observatory which housed a Cave 25cm Reflector. Here is his
portrait (taken in September 1997) with a 20cm SCT (see CMO #196 on 25 October
1997). See also
http://www.kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~cmo/cmo/letter/ahe/ahe211.html
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