Gary W. Kronk
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Gary W. Kronk
OR:
Gary W. Kronk on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Gary W. Kronk (born 1956) is an American
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 m ...
and writer.


Biography

Kronk was born in
Granite City, Illinois Granite City is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States, within the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. The population was 27,549 at the 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in the Metro East and Southern Illinois regions, ...
,
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, on March 23, 1956. He developed an interest in space at an early age, during the time of the first manned space flights of project Mercury; however, it was Mariner 4's close-up images of Mars that appeared on television the night of July 14, 1965 that focused his interest to astronomy. This interest was focused even more by
Comet Kohoutek Comet Kohoutek ( formally designated C/1973 E1 and formerly as 1973 XII and 1973f) is a comet that passed close to the Sun towards the end of 1973. Early predictions of the comet's peak brightness suggested that it had the potential to become o ...
(C/1973 E1). Kronk first observed this comet on November 30, 1973, when he was a senior in high school. This observation provided the encouragement to research and write a paper about this comet and other great comets of the past for school. The teacher liked the paper so much, she submitted it to the local paper. He has been observing, researching, and writing about comets ever since. Kronk received a bachelor of science degree in journalism from
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is a public university in Edwardsville, Illinois. SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.Butler 1976, p. 18 It is the younger of the two major inst ...
in 1981. He was then just shy of spending seven years in college as he struggled to find a major. In the end, he had a minor in English and extended studies in mathematics, physics, and psychology. Kronk is known as a comet observer, researcher, and writer. His latest book project is ''Cometography'', which is a six-volume series being published by Cambridge University Press. His knowledge of the history of comets has led to the linking of several comets to older apparitions. This includes linking periodic comet
109P/Swift-Tuttle 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
to Chinese comets seen in 69 BC and AD 188, which helped confirm that the comet's motion was not greatly influenced by nongravitational effects, and linking periodic comet
104P/Kowal 104P/Kowal, also known as Kowal 2, is a periodic Jupiter-family comet discovered by Charles T. Kowal in 1979. The orbit was confirmed after new sightings in 1991 and 1998. In 2003, Gary Kronk and Brian Marsden noticed that an object observed ...
to a comet reported by the Reverend Leo Boethin (Philippines) in 1973, which helped confirm that its motion was greatly influenced by nongravitational effects. Kronk's comet research is also strongly aligned to
meteor shower A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extre ...
research, because of the relationship between the two fields. He wrote the book ''Meteor Showers'' in 1988 and his expertise in the field drew an invitation to become part of the historic
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
/
US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
Leonid MAC 99 which studied a
meteor storm A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extre ...
from the
Leonid meteor shower The Leonids ( ) are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel–Tuttle, which are also known for their spectacular meteor storms that occur about every 33 years. The Leonids get their name from the location of their radiant ...
while flying over the Mediterranean Sea.P. Jenniskens, Leonid MAC 99
/ref>


Awards

Charles P. Olivier Award, American Meteor Society, 1999. The
asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
48300 Kronk __NOTOC__ Year 483 ( CDLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aginantius without colleague (or, less frequently, ...
was named in his honor.


Publications

Comets: A Descriptive Catalog, Enslow Publishers, Inc. (1984) Meteor Showers, Enslow Publishers, Inc. (1988) Cometography, volume 1, Cambridge University Press (1999) Cometography, volume 2, Cambridge University Press (2004) Cometography, volume 3, Cambridge University Press (2007) Cometography, volume 4, Cambridge University Press (2008) Cometography, volume 5, Cambridge University Press (2010) Cometography, volume 6, Cambridge University Press (2017) Meteor Showers, 2nd edition, Springer. (2013) Lewis Swift: Celebrated Comet Hunter and the People's Astronomer, Springer. (2017)


Personal Web Sites

https://web.archive.org/web/20190226050258/http://meteorshowersonline.com/


References


External links


Gary W. Kronk's Bio Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kronk, Gary W. American astronomers 1956 births Living people Southern Illinois University Edwardsville alumni