Jack Newton

Jack is a retired Marks & Spencer store manager, whose love of astronomy dates back to his 12th birthday. He was living in Winnipeg then, and was fortunate to have parents who recognized his interest in science and rewarded it by buying him a small but good quality telescope.  His life changed forever that night when he "independently discovered" the rings around Saturn!  Jack can still recall the kids at school pooh-poohing the idea that he could see the craters on the Moon from his own backyard.  He had no choice but to prove them wrong and did that by using his paper route money to buy the equipment necessary to start what was become a lifelong interest in astrophotography.

Jack Newton is now an internationally recognized amateur astronomer and astro-imager.   He has pioneered the field of amateur CCD photography,  especially the development of high resolution tri-color imaging.  Jack’s photographs are well-known to readers of Astronomy,  Sky & Telescope, and Sky News magazines.  He is also a frequent contributor to other magazines, calendars and newspapers around the globe.  His work has been featured in such publications as Newsweek, the Canadian Geographic Magazine,  Photo Life, and The Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky.  

As author or co-author of a number of books on astronomy,  his writings and images enjoy an international following. Included in those works are Deep Sky Objects (Gall Publishers, Toronto, 1977),  the Cambridge Deep Sky Album (Cambridge University Press, 1983) and the Guide to Amateur Astronomy (Cambridge University Press, 1984) which was revised and re-released in 1997.  He most recently co-authored Splendors of the Universe (Firefly Books, 1997) with fellow Canadian science writer Terence Dickinson.

Jack started giving talks at the age of 16, and to this day is invited on a regular basis to address such groups as service clubs, Brownies, Boy Scouts and school groups.  He is a popular lecturer who has been invited to present his stunning images at star parties all over Canada and the United States. In 1995 he traveled to southern England and Wales, where he spoke to over 1,000 British Astronomical Society members during eleven lectures and workshops on his marathon 21-day tour. His travels also include leading solar eclipse expeditions throughout the world to such distant locales as Russia, Indonesia and Mexico. He headed a contingent of 300 enthusiasts to Peru to view Halley’s Comet.

While Jack is self-taught in astronomy (his degree being in business administration), he is often invited to present papers at professional astronomy symposia. He has also contributed his expertise to projects such as the Royal B.C. Museum’s "Explorers of the Universe", and provided materials and information to the school science textbook, Science Probe 9.

Jack received the prestigious Amateur Achievement Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 1988 and served two consecutive elected terms of office as an ASP Director. He is past president of the Victoria, Toronto and Winnipeg centers of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada,  and is winner of that Society’s Ken Chilton Prize and coveted Chant Medal.  He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Medal by the Governor-General of Canada in 1977 for his contributions to science.

Jack was awarded observing time on the University of Hawaii’s telescope on Mauna Kea (site of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope) and while there participated in the filming of a Winnipeg Planetarium-produced show entitled "Astronomers at the Leading Edge".  Jack was the only non-professional astronomer chosen to be featured in this production, which was released in planetaria all across Canada.

The 25-inch f/5 telescope which Jack used for much of his earlier work has been donated to the Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific,  where it is has become the cornerstone for the College’s astronomy program and is used by scholarship students from some 84 different countries.  Jack lent his business acumen to assisting with fund-raising for building of an observatory / teaching facility at the College. Both Jack and his wife, Alice, were named as honorary Patrons of the College some years ago, and immensely enjoy being able to share the wonders of the universe with these remarkable students.

Jack and Alice spend their winters amidst the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. Their vision is to create a world-class astronomy village where friends can join them to enjoy both spectacular solar observing and discovery in one of the last vestiges of truly dark skies in America. Sorry, the Newtons do not offer Bed & Breakfast at this Arizona location, however Jack is still available to provide instruction. Please follow the Arizona Sky Village link on our home page for information on comfortable, reasonably-priced accommodation in the Village or in nearby Portal, Arizona. To date, he has received credit on 10 supernovae discoveries.

Jack has been published in several prominent publications in 2003-4 including feature articles in Astronomy Magazine (June ' 03 & Sept. '03). His spectacular solar images appear in National Geographic's 2004 special edition entitled "exploring SPACE - the universe in pictures", Time Inc's LIFE - the Year in Pictures, as well as Sky & Telescope's 2004  Beautiful Universe.