Asteroid named for local

Photo: Contributed

Okanagan Falls resident Alan Whitman has been honoured by having an asteroid named after him.

Whitman joins Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory scientist Ken Tapping and Osoyoos amateur astronomer Jack Newton, who shared the distinction earlier.

"Since I have a 20-kilometre-wide flying mountain in perpetuity, this will save my heirs the expense of buying a gravestone," said Whitman.

Official astronomical designations are made by the International Astronomical Union, which issued the announcement that the asteroid was to be named (21330) Alanwhitman.

The mountain-sized rock, which orbits between Mars and Jupiter in the main asteroid belt, was discovered at Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona on Jan. 11, 1997, by astronomer Robert Jedicke who was raised in Niagara Falls, Ont.

The nomination was made by Jedicke and his brother Peter Jedicke of London, Ont., who is a former president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

The award citation noted that: “Alan Douglas Whitman is a Canadian amateur astronomer and former weather service officer. He is a skillful observer and has written and lectured widely."

Whitman is a contributing editor for Sky&Telescope magazine of Boston.

In 1980, he founded the predecessor club that in 1996 became the Okanagan Centre of RASC, which now has meeting groups in Penticton, Kelowna and Vernon.

In 1984, Whitman was the founder of the Mount Kobau Star Party, held every August on the mountain near Osoyoos.

Further information on the Okanagan Centre RASC  can be found here.

Details regarding the Okanagan Observatory can be found here.