Wieslaw Z. Wisniewski papers

Lunar and Planetary Laboratory astronomer Dr. Wieslaw Z. Wisniewksi (1931-1994) was a notable expert on photometric standards, CCD photometry and photomultipliers. He focused on light curves of comets and minor planets, especially Earth-approaching objects. He was born on May 2, 1931 in Poland. In his correspondence he writes of how he lost his father to starvation and he himself nearly died from hunger while dealing with a Nazi occupied country. He was saved from starvation with the ending of the Second World War. Wisniewski also endured the communist regime in Poland. Despite the strife of a politically unstable country, he was successful. Wisniewski was a high school mathematics teacher from 1951-1953 while simultaneously working on an M.A. in Astronomy from Poznan University which he received in 1952. He secured a job as a research assistant at the Cracow Observatory of Jagiellonian University where he eventually moved up to the position of lecturer in 1954. He also participated as a Scientist of the International Geophysical Year Expedition from 1957-1959. Wisniewski resumed his position at Cracow Observatory as a senior lecturer in 1959. He received his D.Sc. in Astronomy from Jagiellonian University in 1962.

In 1963, Wisniewski took a leave of absence from Cracow Observatory to work as a research associate at the Lunar Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. He worked extensively with Dr. Harold Johnson, who at the time was breaking new ground by using the UBV photometric system. Both scientists worked on a landmark study of over 5000 bright stars in UBV which they published in 1966. They also recorded observations of Seyfert Galaxies, RR Lyrae stars and supernovae. Wisniewski moved up in ranks as an assistant professor. During this time he was also to confirm that both comets Wolf and Harrington were in fact the same object resulting in the comet named P/Wolf-Harrington. He remained at the Lunar Planetary Laboratory until 1967.

After a brief four year homecoming to Cracow Observatory, he returned in 1971 to the Lunar Planetary Laboratory for the duration of his career. As his career progressed, Wisniewski's research did as well. He moved to using charge-coupled devices or CCD detectors which detect the UV, visible and near-infra light. He made hundreds of observations using this method. Wisniewski spent over three hundred nights per year observing on a variety of telescopes. He used the 28" and 61" telescopes on Mt. Bigelow, the 60" telescopes on Mt. Lemmon and Kitt Peak National Observatory, and even made the trek to Cerro Tololo in Chile. He collaborated extensively with many other astronomers including Theodore Faÿ, George Coyne, Dave Tholen, Tom Gehrels, and many other notable astronomers of his time. He worked on the light curve and taxonomic observations of hundreds of asteroids and multi-color photometry, participated in global observations such as International Halley Watch and 243 Ida and 951 Gaspra as part of the Galileo spacecraft's journey to Jupiter. He contributed early images of P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 to the astronomy community. Wisniewski has a minor planet named after him, (2256) Wisniewski. Wieslaw Z. Wisniewski died on Monday February 28, 1994.