Cyril Jackson (astronomer)

Cyril V. Jackson (5 December 1903 – February 1988) was a South African astronomer, known for discovering 72 asteroids and a number of comets.

Asteroids discovered: 72
1116 Catriona5 April 1929
1186 Turnera1 August 1929
1193 Africa24 April 1931
1194 Aletta13 May 1931
1195 Orangia24 May 1931
1196 Sheba21 May 1931
1197 Rhodesia9 June 1931
1242 Zambesia28 April 1932
1243 Pamela7 May 1932
1244 Deira25 May 1932
1245 Calvinia26 May 1932
1246 Chaka23 July 1932
1248 Jugurtha1 September 1932
1264 Letaba21 April 1933
1268 Libya29 April 1930
1278 Kenya15 June 1933
1279 Uganda15 June 1933
1282 Utopia17 August 1933
1318 Nerina24 March 1934
1319 Disa19 March 1934
1320 Impala13 May 1934
1321 Majuba7 May 1934
1323 Tugela19 May 1934
1324 Knysna15 June 1934
1325 Inanda14 July 1934
1326 Losaka14 July 1934
1327 Namaqua7 September 1934
1349 Bechuana13 June 1934
1354 Botha3 April 1935
1355 Magoeba30 April 1935
1356 Nyanza3 May 1935
1357 Khama2 July 1935
1358 Gaika21 July 1935
1359 Prieska22 July 1935
1360 Tarka22 July 1935
1362 Griqua31 July 1935
1367 Nongoma3 July 1934
1368 Numidia30 April 1935
1393 Sofala25 May 1936
1394 Algoa12 June 1936
1396 Outeniqua9 August 1936
1397 Umtata9 August 1936
1427 Ruvuma16 May 1937
1428 Mombasa5 July 1937
1429 Pemba2 July 1937
1430 Somalia5 July 1937
1431 Luanda29 July 1937
1432 Ethiopia1 August 1937
1456 Saldanha2 July 1937
1467 Mashona30 July 1938
1468 Zomba23 July 1938
1474 Beira20 August 1935
1490 Limpopo14 June 1936
1505 Koranna21 April 1939
1506 Xosa15 May 1939
1595 TangaA19 June 1930
1634 Ndola19 August 1935
1638 Ruanda3 May 1935
1641 Tana25 July 1935
1676 Kariba15 June 1939
1712 Angola28 May 1935
1784 Benguella30 June 1935
1816 Liberia29 January 1936
1817 Katanga20 June 1939
1948 Kampala3 April 1935
1949 Messina8 July 1936
2066 Palala4 June 1934
2825 Crosby19 September 1938
2865 Laurel31 July 1935
3768 Monroe5 September 1937
(5452) 1937 NN5 July 1937
7102 Neilbone12 July 1936
(A) with H. E. Wood

He was born in Ossett, Yorkshire in England; his father emigrated to South Africa in 1911. He earned his B.Sc. at the University of the Witwatersrand.

He worked at Union Observatory in Johannesburg from 1928 to 1947 (IAU code 078, previously known as Transvaal Observatory and later known as Republic Observatory).

He served with South African forces in the Second World War, and was mentioned in despatches.

After the war he was director of the Yale-Columbia Southern Observatory (YCSO) station in Johannesburg (IAU code 077), which had been established by Yale University in the 1920s.[1] Columbia University subsequently collaborated in that venture and the operation became known as the Yale-Columbia Southern Observatory (YCSO, Inc. was formally created in 1962).

Due to light pollution that observatory had to be shut down in 1951 and he supervised the move of its instrument, a 26-inch refracting telescope, to Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia (IAU code 414). This Yale-Columbia telescope was given to the Australian National University in July 1963, and was destroyed in the 18 January 2003 firestorm that devastated Mount Stromlo.

Jackson worked at Mount Stromlo from 1957 to 1963. In 1963, Yale reopened its Columbia Southern Observatory at El Leoncito, Argentina (IAU code 808), and he served as its director there until 1966, when he retired. He discovered a number of comets, including the periodic comets 47P/Ashbrook-Jackson and 58P/Jackson-Neujmin. He also discovered 72 asteroids in the earlier part of his career at Union Observatory.

References
  1. "The Yale Southern Observatory, Inc". www.astro.yale.edu.
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