Stuart Nigel Henbest was born on 6 May 1951 and is a British astronomer and science communicator.
22 Facts About Nigel Henbest
1.
2.
Nigel Henbest has written around 50 books and over 1,000 articles on astronomy and space for the popular market, including The New Astronomy and The Guide to the Galaxy.
3.
Nigel Henbest leads tours to view total eclipses of the Sun.
4.
Formerly Astronomy Consultant to New Scientist magazine, editor of the Journal of the British Astronomical Association and media consultant to the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Nigel Henbest is a Future Astronaut with Virgin Galactic.
5.
Nigel Henbest was born in West Didsbury, Manchester, where he lived for the first five years of his life.
6.
Nigel Henbest's father, Bernard Henbest, was an organic chemist and his mother, Rosalind a psychiatrist.
7.
In 1958, his father was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at Queen's University in Belfast, and Nigel Henbest was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution until the age of 18.
8.
Nigel Henbest graduated from the University of Leicester in 1972, gaining a First Class honours BSc in astrophysics.
9.
Nigel Henbest researched the optical spectra of quasars at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, before returning to the Department of Geology at Leicester University, to develop and install tiltmeters and a recording seismometer on the active volcano Mount Etna.
10.
Nigel Henbest has presented research on ancient astronomical observations to the European Association of Archaeologists, and has been an Honorary Professor in the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee.
11.
Nigel Henbest has written around 50 books, many jointly authored with Heather Couper, including Big Bang which won the Times Educational Supplement Senior Book Award.
12.
In 1982, Nigel Henbest was appointed Astronomy Consultant to New Scientist, a post he held for ten years.
13.
Nigel Henbest has led tours of major space centres, from the Apollo Mission Control in Houston to the futurist Spaceport America in New Mexico.
14.
Nigel Henbest was a member of the University of Leicester's winning team on Christmas University Challenge, BBC2,30 December 2013.
15.
In 1989, Lord Bernard and Lady Josephine Miles invited Nigel Henbest to write a play for the Molecule Theatre of Science.
16.
In 1982, Nigel Henbest was appointed Media Consultant to the Royal Greenwich Observatory, with special responsibility for publicising the new Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma and the opening of the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope.
17.
The Open University invited Nigel Henbest to serve as External Assessor on its new Astronomy module, Matter in the Universe, in 1984.
18.
Nigel Henbest was Chairman of National Astronomy Week in 1990, which spearheaded the first national campaign against light pollution in the UK.
19.
In 1983, Nigel Henbest conceived a TV documentary on the pioneering Infrared Astronomical Satellite, which was filmed by Quanta production company and screened in the BBC television Horizon strand.
20.
Nigel Henbest delivers presentations on Astronomy and Television at international conferences.
21.
Nigel Henbest was consultant on the television series The Planets and The Stars, presented by Heather Couper in 1985 and 1988 on Channel 4.
22.
In 2009, Nigel Henbest signed up with Virgin Galactic for a suborbital flight into space, launching in SpaceShipTwo from the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport Spaceport America.