• Question: What have you found out and what is the most interesting thing about been an astronomer

    Asked by anon-254176 to John on 13 May 2020.
    • Photo: John Davies

      John Davies answered on 13 May 2020:

      Hi Daniel

      In 1983 I discovered 6 comets, one of which (Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock) passed quite close to the Earth. It was newsworthy enough to get me on the TV. Also while working with the IRAS satellite I found a huge trail of dust orbiting along with Comet Tempel-2. Annoyingly, although I published my result in Nature, an American astronomer found the same thing 2 years later and somehow he seems to get all the credit. Life’s not always fair! Other highlights would be some of the first observations of Kuiper belt objects and the detection of water in Comet Hale-Bopp, back in the 90’s. So you see I’m a solar system person.

      Not all my job is interesting. I spend quite a bit of time doing paperwork and administration, but the thing I like the best is going to a telescope and observing. I’ve done this in Hawaii, South Africa, Chile and the Canary islands. I just love it. It is a boyhood dream come true. My ideal collaborator is some-one who hates staying up all night but loves doing maths. Then I get to go to the telescope and they get to crunch the numbers.

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