Colin Stanley Gum

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Colin Stanley Gum (1924-1960) was an Australian astronomer who catalogued emission nebulae in the southern sky at the Mount Stromlo Observatory using wide field photography. Gum published his findings in 1955 in a study entitled A study of diffuse southern H-alpha nebulae which presented a catalog of 85 nebulae or nebular complexes. Gum 12, a huge area of nebulosity in the direction of the constellations Puppis and Vela, was later named the Gum Nebula in his honor. Gum was part of the team, whose number included Frank John Kerr and Gart Westerhout, that determined the precise position of the neutral hydrogen plane in space.

Gum crater, on the Moon, is named after him. An obituary article on Gum appears in the Australian Journal of Science (Vol. 23, no. 4, 1960).

[edit] Sources

• Gum Nebula
• SouthernSkyPhoto.com
• Anglo-Australian Observatory
• Physics Today, 2001
• The Cloud Hunters
• Illustrated Gum Catalog