Orwell Astronomical Society (Ipswich)
David Barnard (1958 - 2005)
David was born in September 1958 in Ipswich. He attended local schools and Suffolk College. He initially worked for the Meteorological Office, returning to the Ipswich area to work for Fisons and then British Telecom.
It was whilst at primary school, after attending an open day at the observatory, that his interest in astronomy began. David joined OASI in November 1973, bringing the Society’s total membership at the time to 99. On joining the Society, he regularly attended meetings of the Double Stars Section, organised by David Bearcroft. One amusing incident occurred in 1975 when, as is so often the case, rather than observing stars, the astronomers in the Dome were engaged in maintenance tasks, on the night in question attempting repairs to the original mechanical drive system of the Tomline Refractor (long before the telescope was powered by an electric drive). In order to investigate the load on the drive shaft, David had to enter the space under the floor of the Dome, entering via an air vent. Although ingress to the under-floor space proved unremarkable, egress was not so, and it was only after much pulling and pushing, and threats to amputate limbs to ease the task, that three colleagues managed to pull David free!
David had an interest in meteor observing which he developed after joining OASI. He attended OASI meteor watches and, in mid-July 1974, began to assist Steve Flory, then director of the OASI Meteor Section, to organise meteor counts. In September 1975, David took over from Steve as Director of the Section. In this role he organised meteor counts for the next ten years, the last one being on 21 April 1984. Most meteor counts were held at Foxhall Heath or the foreshore of the River Orwell. As usual in the UK, the weather caused problems, and records of the Perseids meteor count on the foreshore on 14 August 1982 show that the observers were clouded out and, instead of counting meteors, organised an impromptu barbeque! The most successful meteor count during this period was on 13 December 1980, when David plus five other observers counted 281 Geminids including two spectacular fireballs of magnitude –5.
As part of his meteor work, from the late 1970s onwards, David collated reports of fireballs. There were many interesting observations during this period. One particularly memorable observation occurred on 07 January 1977 when two boys in south-east Ipswich observed a very bright fireball moving southwards. The Ipswich Evening Star and Radio Orwell reported the fireball, describing it as red and yellow, moving steadily towards the River Orwell leaving a train of about one minute duration and emitting two loud bangs and a hissing sound. David received several subsequent reports, stimulated no doubt by the report in the media; unfortunately, none appeared to confirm the fireball and in fact most appeared to relate to aircraft! However, in a triumph of optimism over experience, David, the two boys who observed the fireball, Roy Cheesman and his two sons hunted for possible meteorite debris left by the fireball along the foreshore of the River Orwell, but without success!
On 17 November 1979, David was invited to give a ten minute talk on Astronomy on the Patrick Eade programme on Radio Orwell. David’s talk was a great success and he subsequently gave a brief talk on astronomy on Radio Orwell every Wednesday following the 5pm news.
Throughout the 1980s, David was one of a small band of members of OASI who undertook trips to the north of Scotland to enjoy the dark skies there and to undertake observations of meteors and aurorae. The destinations were: 1980 Durness, 1981 Durness, 1982 north-west Scotland, 1989 Orkney. The trips were epic adventures, involving variously overnight drives of many hours duration, spectacular scenery, tents blown away in gales, minibus crashes, and some of the clearest and darkest skies that the observers had ever witnessed (David remarked in his report on the 1981 trip that the Coal Sack nebulae in the Milky Way in Cygnus were easily visible). It was during these trips that David developed a love of the remote wilderness of the north of Scotland, inspired largely by the spectacular scenery.
David was elected to the committee of OASI in 1977. He held the role of Public Relations Officer for several years until, in 1987, he was elected vice chairman. He remained vice chairman until the post was abolished in 1994.
In the mid-1990s, family responsibilities and other interests left David little time for Astronomy and, in 1998, he ceased to be a member of OASI. Tragedy arrived in early 2004, when he was diagnosed with cancer and initial investigations at Ipswich hospital indicated that the diseaseS was at an advanced stage. Later that year, perhaps inspired by memories of his trips to the north of Scotland in the 1980s, David moved with his family to the remote village of Shawbost, on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis. On 28 August 2005, in his new home, he lost his fight against cancer. He is survived by wife Elaine and son Scott.
James Appleton, Martin Cook, Roy Gooding