Duncan Lunan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)

Duncan Lunan (born 1945 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish astronomer and science writer.

Lunan studied English, Philosophy, French, Physics and Astronomy at Glasgow University. He joined the Scottish branch of the BIS (British Interplanetary Society) in 1962. He was on the committee which drew up the Constitution of ASTRA (Association in Scotland to Research into Astronautics) as an independent society in 1963, and redrafted it as the "Memorandum and Articles of a Company Limited by Guarantee" in 1974. He has been a Council member since December 1963 with only two short breaks, and has been Treasurer, President, Vice-President, Treasurer, President, Secretary and President again during that time. He has been exhibition organiser and on the publications committee since 1970, editing ASTRA's publications in 1982 and 1992-96.

Duncan is a full-time writer on astronomy, space flight and science fiction; his books include Man and the Stars, New Worlds for Old and Man and the Planets, created as book projects within the society, and he had guest chapters in the other two books published with ASTRA participation, Extraterrestrial Encounter by Chris Boyce and The High Frontier edited by Bob Low. His current book project, Children from the Sky, was an ASTRA discussion project in 1994-95 and he is writing the text for a current project, 'Incoming Asteroid!', editing a second, 'Man and the Earth: The Politics of Survival', and co-writing the text for 'Building the Martian Nation', a book project of the Scottish Branch of the Mars Society.

His published work comprises four books to date, contributions to 16 other books, and altogether 30 short stories and about 600 articles. He was science fiction critic of the Glasgow Herald 1971-85, ran the paper's SF and fantasy short story competitions 1986-2002,founded the Glasgow SF Writers' Circle in 1986, edited 'Starfield, Science Fiction by Scottish Writers' for Orkney Press in 1989. Currently he writes 'Hawke's Notes' for 'Jeff Hawke's Cosmos', the books and magazines published by the Jeff Hawke Club, reprinting the classic Jeff Hawke comic strip from the Daily Express, 1954-1972, continued in syndication to 1988.

In 1978-79 he was Manager of the Glasgow Parks Dept. Astronomy Project, which built the first astronomically aligned stone circle in Britain for 5000 years, and among many other ASTRA conferences he organised one on archaeoastronomy at the Third Eye Centre in 1978, 'Heresies in Archaeoastronomy' at the Edinburgh International Science Festival in 1996 and its follow-up events in Glasgow.

He was Acting Curator of Airdrie Public Observatory in 1979-80 and was Assistant Curator in 1987-97, becoming a curator again in 2002 and continuing to date. In 2006 and 2007 he ran astronomy education projects funded by the National Lottery 'Awards for All', with outreach to schools and community groups, followed by a larger project funded by Heritage Lottery for 2007-2008. His monthly astronomy column 'The Sky above You' has appeared in various newspapers and magazines since 1973.