CMO/OAA Cahier #05

E H COLLINSON

I

N J BAA 101 (1991) 12, Richard McKIM gave a memorial address in honour of Edward Howard COLLINSON who was the former Director of the BAA Mars Section and died on 26 September 1990, just before the 1990 opposition of Mars. In the Far East we have a tradition to think of the deceased in mid-August every year (BON festival) and hence I write here a bit from my personal memory.

　It was in 1954 when I was fifteen years of age that I first heard the name of E H COLLINSON. On the occasion of my attendance at a General Meeting of the OAA held in May 1954 at Toyama, I came across a mimeographed copy of a translation of a good introduction to Mars entitled The planet Mars, the writer of which was nobody else but E H COLLINSON: The lecture was the one originally given on 28 October 1953 in a general meeting of the BAA. Issei YAMAMOTO, the founder of the OAA & the OAA President at that time, must have readily recognised the excellence of the article: I YAMAMOTO himself translated it into Japanese and published it in a form of pamphlet to be available to the OAA members. I (MINAMI) still keep the pamphlet, and am sure that it was a good summary of the update knowledge on Mars at that time. By the way, 1954 was the year when the planet approached upto 21.9 arcsecs, and I first obtained a total of 170 drawings of the Martian surfaces. Dr Issei YAMAMOTO passed away in 1959.

　E H COLLINSON was President of the BAA when he delivered the lecture. He then led the BAA Mars Section as the Director from 1956 through 1979. He wrote Section Reports at each of the Mars apparitions from 1956 to 1978. At the perihelic opposition in 1971, he had more than 50 members who contributed observations.

　According to McKIM's obituary notice, E H COLLINSON was born on 15 November 1903, and hence he enjoyed longevity of 87 years. He joined the BAA in 1920, and was its third-oldest member when he passed. He contributed Mars observations to the BAA first in 1924, the year of the closest opposition of the present century. Though he became less active in the 1980's, he thus experienced five perihelic oppositions of Mars through his happy life.

Masatsugu MINAMI

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CMO No.108 (25 August 1991 issue) p927

Japanese Version

We add here that COLLINSON’s lecture in 1953 especially alluded to a temporal appearance of a dark broad band on Noachis in December 1928 from M Serpentis toward the SW direction: It was said really as dark as M Sabaeus. This was a non-seasonal change and looked the same as those temporally seen in 1864 (by W R DAWES) and in 1896 (by Rev T E R PHILLIPS). This must have been quite similar to the ones we recently observed in 2003 and 2005.

E H COLLINSON observed the planets (mainly Mars and Jupiter) from 1930 to 1935 by the use of a 25 cm Merz refractor at Nacton, Ipswich and from 1935 by the use of a 25 cm speculum which he borrowed from the BAA at Felixstowe. The BAA 1969 Mars report which he wrote lists himself as “E. H. Collinson, Ipswich, 25cm Spec.” The 1971 great apparition Mars report which COLLINSON wrote however did not show his name in the observer list. Instead John H ROGERS showed up. R McKIM was not yet.

The portrait here newly added of Edward COLLINSON was the one taken by Alan HEATH on the occasion of the BAA Exhibition on 31 May 1978. We are thankful to A HEATH who kindly sent it to us after reading our article on E H COLLINSON in CMO #108 (25 August 1991 issue).

(Note added in May 2006)

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