Haas, Walter Henry

Born New Waterford, Ohio, USA, 3 July 1917

Walter Henry Haas founded the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers and, over his lifetime, provided substantial leadership to the amateur astronomical community in those fields. Interested in astronomy at an early age, Haas observed Nova Herculis 1934 and began a long career of lunar observation in that same year. Between high school and college, he spent a month at the Woodlawn Observatory of William Pickering in Mandeville, Jamaica, learning lunar and planetary observing techniques. Haas earned a BS in mathematics at Mount Union College, Alliance, Ohio, and an MA in mathematics at Ohio State University. During his high school and college years, Haas formed a network of relationships with other amateur astronomers with similar observing interests. He published the results of his own work, as well as that of others, in a series of articles in Amateur Astronomy, Popular Astronomy, Texas Observer’s Bulletin, and Journal of the Royal...