Bob Argyle - President, and Director, Double Star
The Webb Deep-Sky Society
Bob Argyle - President, and Director, Double Star
I was born in London but spent 20 years in the North East of England and 30 out of the last 35 years in Southern England. Hence the southerners think I have a northern accent and vice-versa.
I joined the Webb Society in 1968 and have served in most of the Committee posts since then, becoming Vice-President in 1983 and President in 1990. My main interest in is the observation of visual binary stars and I have been the Director of the Double Star Section since 1970. I have used the 28-inch refractor whilst at Herstmonceux and the 26.5-inch refractor at Johannesburg for micrometer measures. Since Mar 1990 I have been using the 8-inch Cooke refractor at the University of Cambridge Observatories - (built in 1864 and once owned by W.R.Dawes). I have compiled the 12 Double Star Section Circulars which have been issued since 1979 and authored the Society's Double Star Handbook (now long out of print). I have edited a book about visual double star observing which was published by Springer in 2004.
I work in the Astronomy Survey Unit at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge where I am UK Archive Manager for the data obtained from the Isaac Newton Group on La Palma and an Editor of Observatory magazine.
In my spare time I try and listen to classical music. My sense of humour encompasses radio shows such as the Goon Show, ``I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue'' and cartoons such as the Far Side.