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32 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE JULY 2016

Science prize

Amateur awarded

An Aussieamateurastronomer’sworkhasbeenrecognised

throughtheawardofaprestigioussciencemedal.

JONATHAN NALLY

T

he Astronomical Society of

Australia’s (ASA) prestigious

Berenice and Arthur

Page Medal has been awarded

to Brisbane-based amateur

astronomer, Roy Axelsen. Roy

was announced the winner of

the 2016 medal at the National

Australian Convention of Amateur

Astronomers, held in Sydney in

April. The award was presented on

behalf of the ASA by Dr Lee Spitler,

a scientist at Macquarie University

and the Australian Astronomical

Observatory.

“The judges had a difficult

time selecting this year’s winner

as each candidate published

important work in academic

journals,” Dr Spitler told the

NACAA audience, adding that Roy

had “demonstrated a clear drive for

increasing our knowledge through

years of meticulous use of his

astronomy tools.”

Spitler said that Roy has become

an expert in producing light

curves of Delta Scuti variables

using various techniques. “Among

many other discoveries, he directly

recorded the highest rate of

increase in the period of a radially

pulsating Delta Scuti star,” Spitler

said. “He directly contributed to the

broader community by publishing

a standardised methodology for

the analysis of change in rates of

maximal brightness period.”

Roy “has made a genuine

contribution to the science of Delta

Scuti variables and a valuable

contribution to the advancement of

astronomy,” said Spitler.

Late starter

Roy came to astronomy quite

late, in 2002 at the age of 59. A

pathologist (now retired) by day, he

had spent most of his days peering

down a microscope, diagnosing

melanomas and moles and cancers.

But he had also been on the lookout

for another scientific activity

he could get his teeth into, and

astronomy is what he settled on.

“I had been looking at

astronomy things on the Internet

and found that variable star

observation was the particular

field [to which] amateurs could

actually contribute significantly to

astronomical research,” he said.

“I’d always been interested to some

extent in research, so I thought

‘That’s for me’.”

Roy joined the Astronomical

Association of Queensland (AAQ)

— an astronomy group with a great

reputation for supporting serious

research — and picked Delta Scuti

stars as his targets. Delta Scuti

stars are short-period pulsating

variables, which means “you can

get an entire light-cure or several

light-curve peaks during one night

Artist’s impression of the Beta Pictoris star system.

Beta Pic is one variant of the Delta Scuti type of variable star.

ESO /L.CALÇADA /N.RISINGER(SKYSURVEY.ORG)