Lewis Swift ― Celebrated Comet Hunter and the People's Astronomer

Swift's enthusiasm and success as an amateur astronomer helped make him famous in the United States. With the help of others, Swift was able to buy a 16-inch refractor, the third largest telescope in the United States at the time. Hulbert Harrington Warner built "Warner Observatory" to house this telescope. As a prolific writer and lecturer, Swift's stories appeared in newspapers and magazines, while his lectures showed that he was able to explain anything in a way that everyone could understand.

Gary W. Kronk received his Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. He has been employed at Washington University at St. Louis since 1985, where he is a programmer analyst, and occasionally teaches classes on software programs.

Observing, researching, and writing about comets is an activity the author has participated in for most of his life, with over 2,000 observations of over 130 comets. He is the author of seven titles, and has been published in “Sky & Telescope,” “Astronomy,” “Icarus,” “the Journal of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers” and more. His books include “Comets: A Descriptive Catalog” (Enslow Publishers, 1984), “Meteor Showers” (Enslow, 1988), and a six volume series title “Cometography” with Cambridge University Press. The 5th volume was published in 2010. In 2004, the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center announced that minor planet number 48300 was being given the name “Kronk” in honor of the author’s extensive research for his Cometography series.