Brian George William Manning (14 May 1926 – 10 November 2011) was an English

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

who discovered 19

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

s. He was born in 1926 in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. He constructed his first mirror from a piece of glass that a World War II bomb blew out of the roof of the factory where his father worked. He began as an engineering draughtsman but later became a

metrologist Metrology is the scientific study of measurement. It establishes a common understanding of units, crucial in linking human activities. Modern metrology has its roots in the French Revolution's political motivation to standardise units in Fra ...

at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

. In the late 1950s, he constructed an interference-controlled ruling machine in a home workshop, which was able to rule high-quality 3 by 2 inch gratings. In 1990, he received the H. E. Dall prize of the BAA.EBSCOhost Connection
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Discoveries

Brian Manning is credited by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Funct ...

with the discovery of 19 minor planets he made at Stakenbridge Observatory (

494 __NOTOC__ Year 494 ( CDXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rufius and Praesidius (or, less frequently, year 1247 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination ...

), near Kidderminster, England, between 1989 and 1997. All of his discovered minor planets are

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

s of the

main-belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...

References

* Hurst, Guy M. 'Brian George William Manning' in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association, April 2012, Volume 22, Number 2.

External links

IAUC 3104
periodic comet Chernykh (1977l), 1926 births 2011 deaths 20th-century English astronomers Academics of the University of Birmingham Discoverers of minor planets Discoveries by Brian G. W. Manning Metrologists People from Handsworth, West Midlands {{UK-astronomer-stub