On May 17, I reported here the strange tale of Robert Burnham, Jr., the astronomer who wrote the much-loved observing guide Burnham's Celestial Handbook, a standard for amateur astronomers for many years. Yesterday would have been Burnham's 80th birthday, and to mark the occasion science writer and editor Tony Ortega, a longtime friend of Astronomy magazine and now editor of The Village Voice, is publishing a special story.
Photo Credit: Tony Ortega/The Village Voice
And no, we are not talking about
our Robert Burnham, the longtime editor at
Astronomy magazine who now works at Arizona State University. The
other Robert Burnham. Robert Burnham, Jr., died in 1993 at age 61, years after writing his famous book.
To mark what would have been Burnham's 80th birthday, Ortega is publishing an incredible, 24,000-word "manifesto" that constitutes a long and detailed autobiography written in 1983. Ortega published part two online today; see it at
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/06/robert_burnham_j_1.php.
You can see part one of the "manifesto," published yesterday,
here.You may also want to see
Tony's 1998 article on Burnham published in Astronomy magazine
And you can also see a March 1982 self-interview Burnham conducted in Astronomy magazine
Was Burnham's Celestial Handbook a part of your observing of the sky? Did Robert Burnham, Jr., influence you as a skywatcher? Let me hear from you by posting in the comments section below!