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Some sad news, the passing of Ron Livesey:
A sad loss, I had the privilege of meeting him once and I have a cherished memory of Ron who did so much for astronomy. My condolences to his family. He will be greatly missed.
This is very sad news. I met Ron on numerous occasions and he delighted in explaining the aurora, discussing solar observing and monitoring variable stars, mentioning his well-travelled career as a civil engineer – and his distrust of computers! 🙂
He felt that an engineer should be able to solve problems by working from first principles and their professional training, rather than relying on the integrity of a computer program. This philosophy meant that he didn’t use e-mail, but it was nice to receive letters from him.
Here’s a link to his article on the ‘Jam-Jar Magnetometer’
He liked drawing and always had a sketchbook to hand. I’m proud that I have one of his watercolours of Holyrood Palace and Calton Hill, Edinburgh.
With the passing of Ron and Dr Dave Gavine we have lost, within a year, two of Scotland’s great contributors to British amateur astronomy.
Ron was a regular contributor to the Solar Section for many years. Even when his health was failing, Ron managed to take a small telescope outside into a nearby park to record his daily sunspot counts. His lack of mobility in his final months prevented him doing this, much to his annoyance! We corresponded regularly especially when he was not to so mobile.
Ron was awarded the BAA Lydia Brown Award in 1995 and the Walter Goodacre Award in 2012.
He will be very much missed.
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