Born and raised in Peterborough, George Alcock was one of Britain’s most remarkable amateur astronomers, celebrated for discovering five comets and several bright novae with nothing more than patient observation and an extraordinary memory for the night sky.
5
Comets discovered
10,000s
Stars he could recognise
3174
The asteroid that bears his name
A life in dates
- 1912Born in Peterborough
- 1959First major discovery: a nova in Delphinus
- 1979Appointed MBE
- 2000Dies, aged 88
The self-taught observer
A self-taught stargazer, Alcock developed the ability to recognise tens of thousands of individual stars, scanning the heavens from the garden of his home in Peterborough with binoculars or a small telescope.
He was not working from a mountaintop observatory. He was working from a garden, with binoculars, and a memory for the sky that almost nobody else had.
The discoveries
His first major discovery came in 1959 with a nova in the constellation Delphinus, followed by a series of comet and nova sightings that placed him among the world’s leading amateur observers.
Honours
Alcock balanced his astronomical pursuits with a career as a schoolteacher and an enduring love for his home city. His achievements were recognised with an MBE in 1979 and the naming of asteroid 3174 Alcock in his honour.
His legacy in the city
Today, his legacy lives on locally in places such as the George Alcock Centre in Stanground, a community hub named to celebrate a man who brought the wonders of the cosmos a little closer to Peterborough.