Burnham's Celestial Handbook

Robert Burnham Jr. (June 16, 1931 – March 20, 1993) was an American astronomer, best known for writing the classic three-volume ''Burnham's Celestial Handbook''. He discovered numerous asteroids, including the Mars crossing asteroid 3397 Leyla, and six comets.

Burnham's late years were tragic; he died destitute and alone. However, he is remembered by a generation of deep sky observers for his unique contribution to astronomy, the ''Celestial Handbook.'' The main-belt asteroid 3467 Bernheim was named in his honor.

Early life and career

Burnham was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1931, the son of Robert Sr. and Lydia. His family moved to Prescott, Arizona, in 1940, and he graduated from high school there in 1949. That was the culmination of his formal education. Always a shy person, he had few friends, never married, and spent most of his time observing with his home-built telescope.

In the fall of 1957 he received considerable local publicity when he discovered his first comet. This led to his being hired by Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1958 to work on a survey of stellar proper motion using a blink comparator. While Burnham was working at Lowell, he and his co-worker, Norman G. Thomas, discovered five more comets (including 56P/Slaughter-Burnham), and in excess of 1500 asteroids.

''Burnham's Celestial Handbook''

In addition to his regular duties at the observatory, Burnham spent almost all of his free time working on the ''Celestial Handbook''. His writing and his book were never officially supported by Lowell Observatory.

Subtitled "An Observer's Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System," the ''Celestial Handbook'' combines a lengthy introduction to astronomy with catalog information for every constellation in the sky. Thousands of stars and deep sky objects visible in small telescopes are covered in meticulous detail.

Originally self-published in a loose-leaf serial format beginning in 1966, and with a revised edition by Dover Publications in 1978, the ''Celestial Handbook'' was well reviewed in amateur astronomy magazines and became a best seller in this specialized field. It is still in print and is considered to be a classic in the literature of amateur astronomy.

Due to the popularity of ''Celestial Handbook,'' Tony Ortega writing in the Phoenix New Times in 1997 described Burnham as an author "whose name has become so familiar to some readers it has become a sort of shorthand, like Audubon to birders, Hoyle to card players, Webster to poor spellers, Robert to parliamentarians." Ortega then described the book series as:

Excerpts

Burnham and spectra of planetary nebulae:

The color contrast of Albireo (β Cygni):

Messier 22:

Burnham and '' sabi'':

Burnham, the Pleiades, and Devil's Tower:

Life after Lowell

In April 1979, the year after ''Celestial Handbook'' was published by Dover, Burnham received notice that the proper motion survey would soon be completed and that the observatory could not afford to keep him on in the position he had long held. Despite months of warning, he failed to make other arrangements and, after twenty-one years at Lowell, his job ended in December of that year. Unwilling to take the only position that was offered to him, that of janitor at the observatory, he left.

Burnham was never able to recover personally, professionally, or financially after he lost the job at Lowell. Over the next few years, while sales of the ''Celestial Handbook'' were rapidly growing, Burnham's personal circumstances were steadily worsening. His shyness increased and he shunned all publicity, becoming even more reclusive. He bickered often with Dover about royalties and about the creation of possible new editions or translations of his book. He also worked sporadically on a fantasy novel – which he never completed.

Writing for the ''Frosty Drew Observatory'' in 2000, Doug Stewart said:

As his situation worsened, Burnham, who was never married, became bitter and depressed, and isolated himself from his few friends and family. He had lived for a time in Phoenix, Arizona, but in May 1986 he left Phoenix and dropped out of sight completely, informing no one but his publisher of his whereabouts. Despite being the author of a successful book, Burnham spent the last years of his life in poverty and obscurity in San Diego, California, selling his paintings of cats at Balboa Park. The fans of ''Celestial Handbook'' were likely unaware of his personal circumstances; possibly assuming that a different Robert Burnham, an editor at ''Astronomy'' magazine, was the author.

Naming of 3467 Bernheim

Norm Thomas, Burnham's former co-worker at Lowell Observatory, had told Burnham that he planned to name an asteroid after him. On September 26, 1981, Thomas discovered a main belt asteroid, but since asteroid 834 Burnhamia, named after the unrelated 19th century astronomer Sherburne Wesley Burnham, already carried the name, a different spelling was needed. Thomas chose the spelling ''Bernheim'', for the Burnham family's ancestral Bohemian surname. Thus the asteroid named to honor Robert Burnham Jr. was named 3467 Bernheim.

Death and posthumous "interview"

Burnham died destitute and alone at the age of sixty-one in 1993. His family did not learn about his death (apparently by his choice) until two years later, and didn't report it to the press even then because they were unaware of his stature in the amateur astronomy community.

After his death, it was realized that he had often attended programs presented by the San Diego Astronomy Association (at the Ruben H. Fleet Space Theater in Balboa Park) without anyone recognizing him. In spite of the tragedy of his later years, Burnham continues to be remembered by a generation of deep sky observers for his unique ''Celestial Handbook''. His cremated remains are interred at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California.

In 2009 a memorial consisting of a small bronze plaque resembling a page in ''Burnham's Celestial Handbook'' was installed on the Pluto Walk at Lowell Observatory.

Burnham rarely gave interviews, but at the height of the popularity of ''Handbook'' in 1982, he wrote a piece where he playfully interviewed himself for the magazine ''Astronomy''. A much longer version of this essay, ''An Interview with the author of The Celestial Handbook,'' dated April 1983, was discovered among Burnham's papers and it was first published in its entirety by The Village Voice in June 2011, 18 years after his death. It was introduced as follows:

Bibliography

''Burnham's Celestial Handbook'' was originally self-published in a loose-leaf serial format beginning in 1966; it was issued in hardcover and later as a paperback in a three-volume, revised and enlarged edition by Dover Publications beginning in 1978.
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References

External links

* Tom and Jennifer Polakis
"The Robert Burnham Jr. Memorial at Lowell Observatory"
* Photo o
Burnham
* Tony Ortega
"Sky Writer: The cosmic life of ‘Celestial Handbook’ author Robert Burnham Jr."

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnham, Robert Jr.
1931 births
1993 deaths
20th-century American astronomers
Discoverers of asteroids
Discoverers of comets
People from Prescott, Arizona
Burials at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery