Genial self-taught astronomer became Canada’s guide to all things celestial

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Terence Dickinson, Canada’s foremost astronomy popularizer and author of NightWatch, the world’s top-selling stargazing manual, has died. He was 79.

Mr. Dickinson, who struggled with Parkinson’s disease in his later years, died on Wednesday in Napanee, Ont.

In addition to penning 14 books about the night sky and space, he was known for his regular appearances on CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks and his weekly column in The Toronto Star starting in the 1980s.

In 1995, he became a regular contributor to @discovery.ca, Discovery Channel’s daily science show. That same year, he took over as editor and co-owner of SkyNews, then a one-page newsletter put out by the National Museum of Science and Technology, which he transformed into an award-winning magazine that showcased astrophotography and popular science articles for Canadian readers. He stepped down as editor in 2016.

Among the accolades he received for his work were the Royal Canadian Institute’s Sandford Fleming medal and Industry Canada’s Michael Smith Award for the Public Promotion of Science, both in 1993. In 1994, the International Astronomical Union named the asteroid 5272 Dickinson after him. He was inducted as a member of the Order of Canada in 1995. He also received honorary degrees from Trent University and Queen’s University.

“The astronomy world has lost a bright star, but his legacy lives on in the many books that have inspired tens of thousands of people to look up,” Alan Dyer, a Calgary-based writer and astrophotographer who was a frequent collaborator, wrote in an e-mail.

Known for his warm delivery and precise but easy-to-follow instructions about how to observe objects in the night sky, Mr. Dickinson became Canada’s genial guide to all things celestial. In public talks, he wowed audiences with his photographs and his use of everyday analogies to evoke the grandeur of the cosmos.

His expertise was self-acquired. Mr. Dickinson had no academic training in astronomy but he developed his passion and his skills as an observer from an early age.

Born in Toronto on Nov. 10, 1943, Mr. Dickinson and his mother stayed in the city’s Leaside neighbourhood during the Second World War while his father was in the navy, patrolling the North Atlantic. After the war, his father went to work for Canadian General Electric and the family moved to the Downsview neighbourhood, where Mr. Dickinson spent the rest of his childhood.

He said he was fascinated by a meteor he saw flash across the sky when he was a five year old, a curiosity that only grew with age. Through elementary school, he devoured every book he could find about the stars and received his first telescope as a Christmas present at age 14. When it became clear that his interest was not a passing fad his father took him to see the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, where he met the director. The visit left a lasting impression.

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After graduating from Downsview Secondary School, Mr. Dickinson worked first as a surveyor and then for the computer department of the Ontario Department of Highways. But he maintained his passion for astronomy. In 1967, when he gave a talk at a gathering of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, he impressed Henry King, the director of Toronto’s newly built McLaughlin Planetarium. Dr. King offered him a position on his staff as a scientific assistant.

From there, Mr. Dickinson’s career tracked the rise and development of popular interest in astronomy through the space age. In 1970 he moved on to the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, N.Y., then known for its innovative productions. In 1974 he became executive editor of the newly launched Astronomy magazine.

Mr. Dickinson returned to Canada and after a brief stint at the Ontario Science Centre became a freelance astronomy writer and editor in 1976. He relished the role and his independence, which allowed him to move his base of operations to Eastern Ontario and eventually to Yarker, a small community near Kingston where dark skies were readily available and where could he set up his own permanent backyard observatory.

He became a frequent speaker at astronomical events, respected for his expertise by other serious observers but equally accessible and welcoming to those who were just starting out.

“No one was afraid to approach him,” said Cathy McWatters, a co-organizer of Starfest, Canada’s largest annual gathering of astronomy enthusiasts. “He was gracefully the same person to everyone he met.”

The publication of NightWatch in 1983 cemented Mr. Dickinson’s reputation as Canada’s leading authority on the heavens.

Where amateur astronomers had previously struggled to make sense of guidebooks full of line drawings of constellations and dense, technical prose, NightWatch offered a practical step-by-step introduction to the stars, illustrated with large-format and full-colour sky charts that made it easy for beginners to orient themselves.

In addition to information, Mr. Dickinson also provided his readers with an underlying ethos, framing astronomy in terms of a broader appreciation for the natural world.

“Stargazers,” he wrote, “are naturalists of the night. We appreciate what so many ignore.”

Several more books followed, including The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide, a comprehensive manual co-written with Mr. Dyer. Striking photos, including many of his own, became a key feature of his works, along with evocative illustrations by space artists depicting the visible and invisible realms of the universe.

“Terry’s enthusiasm just broke through. … He was so good at explaining things in ways that people would understand, whether they were his editors or eventually his readers,” said Frank Edwards, a past editor and publisher with Camden House Inc., who worked with Mr. Dickinson on some of his books.

But even when there was no audience around Mr. Dickinson was always ready to head out whenever skies were clear – no matter the time of night or the temperature.

“Cold feet in bed in the wee hours of the morning were my signal that Terry was ending another night of observing,” wrote Susan Dickinson, his wife and partner of 56 years, who was also an editor on several of his projects. “Although he was physically tethered to this planet, his mind soared among the stars.”

Mr. Dickinson was known for his fondness for Mars, which reaches its closest point to Earth about every 26 months, allowing details to be seen on the planet’s surface that are hidden at other times. But any development in scientists’ understanding of the universe or in the technology that revealed it was both a thrill and fodder for his work.

“I want to do what I’m doing for as long as I can,” Mr. Dickinson once said in an interview. “There’s just so much more to know and see, and I’m still excited as a kid about new discoveries. I’ll never run out of things to write about – I’ll just run out of time.”

Mr. Dickinson also leaves a sister, Dianne Dickinson. He is predeceased by his brother, Stephen.