About the Author

Alan H. Batten was born in England in 1933 and was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School and the Universities of St Andrews and Manchester. He spent almost his entire career, however, at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, B.C., Canada, where he studied spectroscopic binary systems and the history of astronomy. From 1985 to 1991 he served as a Vice-President of the International Astronomical Union, and has also been President of the Canadian Astronomical Society and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. In 1977 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and in 1995 he was an Erskine Visiting Fellow at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. He has also been active in the promotion of astronomy in developing countries. He is both the son and father of Anglican clergy, has served on the Synod of the Diocese of British Columbia, and has also been closely associated, since its inception, with the Centre for Studies of Religion and Society of the University of Victoria. He has taught courses in both astronomy and history in that University, and he relaxes by practicing the exercise of change-ringing on the bells of Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria.