Australia’s ‘Area Gandalf’ astronomer dies aged 62

An Australian astronomer who appeared on the BBC’s Stargazing Stay alongside Professor Brian Cox, has died aged 62.

Greg Quicke from Broome, 2,000km (1,240 miles) north of Perth, was often known as “Area Gandalf” for his distinctive white beard.

Within the 2017 Stargazing Stay Australia collection he performed the sensible astronomer to Professor Cox’s theoretical particle physicist.

The collection featured a report from Mr Quicke on why the night time sky appears totally different in Australia in comparison with the UK.

His media profession additionally included a 10-part collection on the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) known as A Stargazers Information to the Cosmos and books together with Is The Moon Upside Down? and Earth Turning Consciousness.

Mr Quicke was additionally a famend tour information, operating “astro excursions” in his residence city.

He estimated that throughout 28 years there had been round 100,000 individuals “together with a BBC producer… who plucked me from the bush and onto the world stage”.

Prof Cox stated that he was “very unhappy” to study of his former colleague’s loss of life.

Writing on X, he stated: “I really like what he wrote on seeing the photo voltaic eclipse in 2023. ‘My physique spent, my coronary heart full, I crash right into a deep eclipse fuelled communion with the opposite worlds’.

“I hope that’s the place he’s now.”

Mr Quicke had been recognized with most cancers in 2023.

A publish on his web site, revealed earlier than his loss of life, says: “Because of some cosmic, bodily and different worldly challenges our 2024 stargazing season is unavailable, closed, shut, not taking place and never taking place.”

A number of individuals who attended his excursions have paid tribute on social media, together with Chris Ross of Sydney, who described it as “a cherished reminiscence”.

Western Australian journalist Sam Tomlin wrote on X that Mr Quicke was “one of many nice scientific communicators of the fashionable period”.

He was a “uncommon breed of nothing however good vibes” who had “made Broome a greater place to be”, added tourism organisation Vacation spot Broome on Fb.

The self-taught astronomer typically instructed of his love of serving to individuals get a larger understanding of the night time sky.

Talking to the ABC in 2017, he stated: “You consider astronomy and infrequently it is introduced as stuff that is on the market.

“However my tackle it’s that we’re on a planet. We’re transferring by way of area.

“These are issues I can take out of your head and I can put them at your ft.”