Career of seeing stars crowned with new honour

A Barnham man's love for the stars has been recognised with an honourary doctorate of science.

Dr John Mason, 55, received the recognition from the University of Portsmouth after more than 30 years involved in astronomy, astrophysics and space technology.

He said: "When I was seven years old, I saw a very bright shooting star in the sky. I was fascinated by it.

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"For my eighth birthday my parents got me a little book about astronomy by Patrick Moore.

"Then when I was 14, Patrick moved to Selsey not very far from me. I phoned him at home and said I was interested in astronomy.

"He asked me over so I could look through his telescope. The first thing I saw was Saturn. I was absolutely hooked and I've known Patrick for more than 40 years."

Dr Mason's latent interest was turned into a career. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and lectures extensively on a wide range of scientific topics to audiences of all ages and expertise.

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He is the principal lecturer at the South Downs Planetarium and Science Centre in Chichester, hosting regular visits by undergraduate students for more than five years.

He frequently broadcasts on radio and television and has appeared many times with Sir Patrick on BBC TV's The Sky at Night.

His credits also include science producer, series producer or science editor of several award-winning TV series and documentaries.

Dr Mason was awarded the MBE at the turn of the year for his services to science education. But perhaps his greatest recognition came in 2000 when asteroid 1990 MN was re-named 6092 Johnmason by the International Astronomical Union.

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"It's amazing '“ a great honour," he said. "You need a telescope to see it as it's in orbit the other side of Mars. But it's quite big, a few kilometres in size.

"It's my own little piece of cosmic real estate. Nobody can take it away from me and I don't have to let the Land Registry know."

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