Michael William Feast

Michael William Feast (29 December 1926[1][2] – 1 April 2019) was a British-South African astronomer. He served as Director of the South African Astronomical Observatory from 1976–1992, then became a professor at the University of Cape Town.[3]

Michael William Feast
Born(1926-12-29)29 December 1926
Deal, Kent, England
Died1 April 2019(2019-04-01) (aged 92)
Cape Town, South Africa
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy
Institutions

His research focussed on the structure of the Milky Way, the Magellanic Clouds, and the cosmic distance ladder using variable stars.[4][5]

Career and honours

Feast holds the degrees of BSc (Hons) and PhD from London[6] From 1949 to 1951 he worked with Gerhard Herzberg at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, following which from 1952 to 1974 he was at the Radcliffe Observatory, Pretoria[7] He was also director of the South African Astronomical Observatory from 1976 to 1992.[8]

He received the DeBeers Medal[9] from the South African Institute of Physics in 1992 and the Gill Medal from the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa in 1983.[10][11] Feast was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society,[1] Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa.[12] The University of Cape Town awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1993.[13] Feast was an editor of the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.[14]

His most frequently cited paper (440 times[15]) relates to his pioneering study of the brightest stars in the Magellanic Clouds with Thackeray and Wesselink;[16] see, for example, Hodge (1999).[17]

Much of his work has related to the Cepheid period-luminosity relation,[18] for example that on its zero-point as determined via the Hipparcos satellite[19]

He died in his sleep on 1 April 2019, aged 92.[1]

References
  1. Whitelock, Patricia (1 June 2019). "Michael William Feast 1926–2019". Astronomy & Geophysics. 60 (3): 3.12. Bibcode:2019A&G....60c3.12W. doi:10.1093/astrogeo/atz143.
  2. Uwechue, Raph (1991). Africa Who's who. Africa Journal Limited. p. 665. ISBN 978-0-903274-17-3.
  3. "Honorary Professor Michael W. Feast". Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  4. Warner, Brian (1999). Warner, B. (ed.). Introduction. Variable Stars and Galaxies, a Symposium in Honour of Professor Michael W. Feast ..., Conference Series Vol. 30. Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
  5. Webb, Stephen (1999). Measuring the Universe: The Cosmological Distance Ladder. Springer. p. 155. ISBN 9781852331061.
  6. Feast, Michael. On the Spectra of Gases Exhibited in the High Voltage Arc (PhD). University of London.
  7. Thackeray, A.D. (1972). The Radcliffe Observatory. The Radcliffe Trust..
  8. "South African Astronomical Observatory". Archived from the original on 28 September 2013.
  9. "Past winners of the De Beers Gold Medal". South African Institute of Physics. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  10. Anon (1983). "Citation". Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa. 42: 16. Bibcode:1983MNSSA..42...16.
  11. "Gill Medal". Astronomical Society of South Africa. Archived from the original on 3 May 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  12. "Royal Society of SA Fellows". Royal Society of South Africa. Archived from the original on 14 August 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  13. "Honorary degrees awarded". University of Cape Town. Archived from the original on 4 March 2013. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  14. "RAS Committee Members". RAS website. Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  15. "SAO/NASA ADS Custom Query Form Mon Mar 18 14:32:27 2013". Adsabs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  16. Feast, M.W.; Thackeray, A.D.; Wesselink, A.J. (1960). "The Brightest Stars in the Magellanic Clouds". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 121 (4): 337–385. Bibcode:1960MNRAS.121..337F. doi:10.1093/mnras/121.4.337.
  17. Hodge, Paul (1999). Chu, Y.H.; et al. (eds.). Magellanic Cloud Studies, Past and Future. New Views of the Magellanic Clouds, IAU Symposium 190. Vol. 190. IAU. pp. 3–7.
  18. Feast, M.W.; Walker, A.R. (1987). "Cepheids as Distance Indicators". Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Annual Reviews Inc. 25: 345–375. Bibcode:1987ARA&A..25..345F. doi:10.1146/annurev.aa.25.090187.002021.
  19. Feast, M.W.; Catchpole, R.M. (1997). "The Cepheid period-luminosity zero-point from HIPPARCOS trigonometrical parallaxes". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 286 (1): L1. Bibcode:1997MNRAS.286L...1F. doi:10.1093/mnras/286.1.L1.
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