Jack B. Newton

Background Jack Newton was born in Winnipeg on 13 August 1942. In 1969, he built a telescope and observatory dome in his backyard, while participating in astrophotography studies at the Winnipeg Centre of RASC where he became president from 1970-72.

Jack Newton died in Oliver, British Columbia on 11 November 2025 at age 83. He pioneered "cold camera" astrophotography, chilling a film camera with dry ice, allowing for substantially longer exposures on film to enhance the details of dim, distant celestial objects. Newton used three separate black and white images, each with a separate filter in red, blue, and green, to construct full-color images with software being developed by Richard Berry, then editor of Astronomy Magazine.

In 1992, Newton used his self-built Newtonian telescope and ST-6 CCD camera to take multiple exposures of Comet Swift–Tuttle from his home in Sooke, British Columbia, sharing the images with members of the University of Victoria Department of Physics and Astronomy for digital image processing and astrometry. In another innovation, Newton captured images of hydrogen-alpha bursts of plasma ejections from the Sun's surface using a specialized telescope filter,

Publications Books Newton published books on amateur astronomy and astrophotography. 1988: Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for his work in astrophotography. 1991: Elected by membership of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific to three terms of office on its Board of Directors (1991-97, 2006–07). Named as co-discoverer of three supernovae in 2015 by the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. 2005: Carolyn S. Shoemaker and David H. Levy named an asteroid, 30840 Jackalice = 1991 GC2, in honor of Newton's astrophotographic accomplishments and for work in astronomy outreach by Jack and Alice Newton. The asteroid was last observed on 9 June 2025. Newton helped establish the astronomy program at the Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific, Metchosin, British Columbia, in collaboration with retired faculty member and physics professor, Jean Godin; Newton donated to the institution's Newton-Godin Observatory a Newtonian telescope – which Newton had assembled himself – regarded for years as one of the largest private telescopes in Canada. Jack and Alice Newton served several terms as honorary patrons of the college.

Jack made solar eclipse expeditions to Oaxaca (Mexico), Baker Lake, Nunavut, Brańsk, Poland, Baja California, and Indonesia. In 1986, he led a group of 300 amateur astronomers to Peru to view Halley's Comet.

Public outreach The devotion of Jack and his wife, Alice, by promoting astronomy education with night and day telescope sessions for guests at the Osoyoos Observatory B&B was recognized over 23 years by new and repeat visitors.

In 2007, one of his solar images was used for the lead-in to the science section in Life: Platinum Edition Anniversary Collection—70 Years of Extraordinary Photography (ISBN 1-933405-17-1). having about 300 clear-sky nights per year for celestial exploration, and a single nighttime rule: turn off all lights.