Axel Firsoff

Valdemar Axel Firsoff FRAS was known principally as an amateur astronomer. He was born on 29 January 1912 in Bila Tserkva, Russian Empire, and died on 19 November 1981. He lived in Lochearnhead, Scotland, before moving to Somerset, England, where he settled in Glastonbury.

Biography

Axel Firsoff held an MA degree in languages and worked as a Swedish translator and in the United Kingdom Patent Office. He was a keen mountaineer and skier, as some of his earlier books reveal, and he was a ski instructor for the British Olympic Ski Team in the 1950s. He developed an interest in science, in particular geology and astronomy and this led him to publish numerous books on the moon and inner planets.

In a 1977 review for Firsoff's book The Solar Planets in the New Scientist, Ian Ridpath commented that "the author queries the now well-established 234-day rotation period of Venus, introduces the concept of superheated steam in that planet's atmosphere, and proposes seas at the Venusian poles. An inexperienced reader, seeking reliable information on our modern knowledge of the Solar System that the book promises, will not know that these views are unorthodox."

Honors Firsoff crater, located in Meridiani Planum on the planet Mars, is named in Firsoff's honor. Firsoff Crater is located at 2.63° North, 350.58° East.

Selected publications

Ski Track on the Battlefield - 1942 The Tatra Mountains - 1942 The Unity of Europe - 1947 The Cairngorms on Foot and Ski - 1949 Arran With Camera and Sketchbook - 1951 Our Neighbor Worlds - 1953 In the Hills of Breadalbane: Illustrated from the author's photos and drawings - 1954 Moon Atlas - 1961 The Surface of the Moon - 1961 Strange World of the Moon - 1962 The Crust Of The Earth - 1962 Life Beyond the Earth: A Study in Exobiology - 1963 Facing the Universe - 1966 Life, Mind and Galaxies - 1967 The Interior Planets - 1968 The Old Moon and the New - 1969 The World of Mars - 1969 Gemstones of the British Isles - 1971 Life among the Stars - 1974 Working with Gemstones - 1974 The Rockhound's Handbook - 1975 The Solar Planets - 1977 At the Crossroads of Knowledge - 1977 The New Face of Mars - 1982