| John M. Pierce | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1886 |
| Died | 4 March 1958 Maitland, Florida, United States |
| Occupation | Teacher, scientific instrument maker |
John M. Pierce (1886 – March 4, 1958) was an American teacher and amateur astronomer.
Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers make contributions in doing citizen science, such as by monitoring variable stars, double stars sunspots, or occultations of stars by the Moon or asteroids, or by discovering transient astronomical events, such as comets, galactic novae or supernovae in other galaxies.
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Pierce worked with Russell W. Porter to organize Stellafane, the observatory near Springfield, Vermont where amateur telescope makers still meet annually for the Stellafane convention. He was one of the earliest members of the Springfield Telescope Makers and served as its vice president.
Russell Williams Porter was an American artist, engineer, amateur astronomer and Arctic explorer. He was a pioneer in the field of “cutaway illustration" and is sometimes referred to as the "founder" or one of the "founders" of amateur telescope making."
Stellafane is the name of the clubhouse built by the Springfield Telescope Makers club of Springfield, Vermont in the early 1920s, and has since come to refer to the club's land and buildings on the summit of Breezy Hill. It also refers to the Stellafane Convention, a gathering of amateur telescope makers and amateur astronomers held every year at that location. The property is a National Historic Landmark.
Springfield is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 9,373 at the 2010 census.
Pierce contributed many articles to the telescope making column conducted by Albert G. Ingalls in Scientific American , and wrote several chapters in the Amateur Telescope Making series of books, including "Motor Drives", "Making Astronomical Flats", and "A Telescope Anyone Can Make" (the latter appeared only in the earliest printings). When the hobby was new and supplies were hard to come by, Pierce set up a small business to provide kits and parts for amateur astronomers. [1]
Scientific American is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein, have contributed articles to it. It is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States.
Amateur Telescope Making (ATM) is a series of three books edited by Albert G. Ingalls between 1926 and 1953 while he was an associate editor at Scientific American. The books cover various aspects of telescope construction and observational technique, sometimes at quite an advanced level, but always in a way that is accessible to the intelligent amateur. The caliber of the contributions is uniformly high and the books have remained in constant use by both amateurs and professionals.
In 1933 and 1934 he published a series of 14 articles on telescope making in Hugo Gernsback's Everyday Science and Mechanics called "Hobbygrafs" (or sometimes "Hobbygraphs").
Hugo Gernsback was a Luxembourgish-American inventor, writer, editor, and magazine publisher, best known for publications including the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publisher–although not as a writer–were so significant that, along with the novelists H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, he is sometimes called "The Father of Science Fiction". In his honour, annual awards presented at the World Science Fiction Convention are named the "Hugos".
Robert E. Cox, in an obituary for Sky and Telescope magazine in 1958, considered John M. Pierce on a par with Ingalls and Porter, describing him as one of "the big three behind the amateur telescope making movement in America." [2]
Robert Edward Cox was an American optical engineer and a popularizer of amateur telescope making. He conducted the popular "Gleanings for ATMs" column in Sky and Telescope magazine for 21 years.
