Gary W. Kronk
Encyclopedia
Gary W. Kronk (born 1956) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
amateur astronomer
Amateur astronomy
Amateur astronomy, also called backyard astronomy and stargazing, is a hobby whose participants enjoy watching the night sky , and the plethora of objects found in it, mainly with portable telescopes and binoculars...
and writer.
Biography
Kronk was born in Granite City, IllinoisGranite City, Illinois
Granite City is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States, part of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. At the 2010 census, the population was 29,849, making it the third largest city in the Metro-East and Southern Illinois, behind Alton and Belleville...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, on March 23, 1956. He developed an interest in space at an early age, during the time of the first manned space flights of project Mercury; however, it was Mariner 4's close-up images of Mars that appeared on television the night of July 14, 1965 that focused his interest to astronomy. This interest was focused even more by Comet Kohoutek
Comet Kohoutek
Comet Kohoutek, formally designated C/1973 E1, 1973 XII, and 1973f, was first sighted on 7 March 1973 by Czech astronomer Luboš Kohoutek. It attained perihelion on 28 December that same year....
(C/1973 E1). Kronk first observed this comet on November 30, 1973, when he was a senior in high school. This observation provided the encouragement to research and write a paper about this comet and other great comets of the past for school. The teacher liked the paper so much, she submitted it to the local paper. He has been observing, researching, and writing about comets ever since.
Kronk received a bachelor of science degree in journalism from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, commonly abbreviated SIUE, is a four-year coed public university in Edwardsville, Illinois about from St. Louis, Missouri. SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and is the younger of the two largest...
in 1981. He was then just shy of spending seven years in college as he struggled to find a major. In the end, he had a minor in English and extended studies in mathematics, physics, and psychology.
Kronk is known as a comet observer, researcher, and writer. His latest book project is Cometography, which is a six-volume series being published by Cambridge University Press. His knowledge of the history of comets has led to the linking of several comets to older apparitions. This includes linking periodic comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle to Chinese comets seen in 69 BC and AD 188, which helped confirm that the comet's motion was not greatly influenced by nongravitational effects, and linking periodic comet 104P/Kowal to a comet reported by the Reverend Leo Boethin (Philippines) in 1973, which helped confirm that its motion was greatly influenced by nongravitational effects.
Kronk's comet research is also strongly aligned to meteor shower
Meteor shower
A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller...
research, because of the relationship between the two fields. He wrote the book "Meteor Shower" in 1988 and his expertise in the field drew an invitation to become part of the historic NASA/US Air Force Leonid MAC 99 which studied a meteor storm from the Leonid meteor shower while flying over the Mediterranean Sea.
Awards
Charles P. Olivier Award, American Meteor Society, 1999.The asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
43800 Kronk was named in his honor.
Publications
Comets: A Descriptive Catalog, Enslow Publishers, Inc. (1984)Meteor Showers, Enslow Publishers, Inc. (1988)
Cometography, volume 1, Cambridge University Press (1999)
Cometography, volume 2, Cambridge University Press (2004)
Cometography, volume 3, Cambridge University Press (2007)
Cometography, volume 4, Cambridge University Press (2008)
Cometography, volume 5, Cambridge University Press (2010)