Born Nelson, Lancashire, England, 3 May 1909
Died probably in Eastbourne, Sussex, 27 February 2000
English radar and radio astronomer Stanley Hey led the small groups that made three of the four first discoveries in radio astronomy – emission from the Sun, radar reflections from ionized trails of meteors (hence daytime meteor showers), and the first extragalactic discrete radio source, Cygnus A.
Hey studied physics at Manchester University, where he met and married a fellow student, Edna Heywood, and received a master’s degree in 1931 in X-ray crystallography. After a period of high-school teaching, the outbreak of World War II led him to take a 6-week course in radar and to join the Army Operations Research Group [AORG]. Here a superior officer once referred to him as James Hey, a misnomer which survives today in many reference works (including this one).
In early 1942, the AORG was focusing on ways to counteract the increasing ability of German stations on the northern French coast...
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Selected References
Henbest, Nigel and Heather Couper (2000). “James Stanley Hey, 1909–2000.” Astronomy and Geophysics 41, no. 3: 38.
Hey, J. S. (1946). “Solar Radiations in the 4-6 Metre Radio Wave-Length Band.” Nature 157: 47–48.
— (1973). The Evolution of Radio Astronomy. London: Elek Science.
Hey, J. S. and G. S. Stewart (1946). “Derivation of Meteor Stream Radiants by Radio Reflexion Methods.” Nature 158: 481–482.
Hey, J. S., S. J. Parsons, and J. W. Phillips (1946). “Fluctuations in Cosmic Radiation at Radio-Frequencies.” Nature 158: 234.
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Sullivan, W.T. (2014). Hey, (James) Stanley. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_620
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