Tributes

Astronomy Sketch of the Day (ASOD)

It is now the one year anniversary of the passing away of Scott Mellish (mid-April 2011) at the young age of 48. Scott was a skilled observer and a meticulous sketcher of the night sky's treasure trove of objects through his telescope. Regularly featured on the Astronomy Sketch Of The Day (ASOD) website and a writer of many articles, Scott was awarded Life Membership of the Astronomical Society of New South Wales in 2008.

Well respected by his peers and a humble man, Scott will be missed by his family and all those he had contact with. A memorial page has been set up at ASOD with some of his beautiful sketches. His sisters Jodie and Tracey miss him very much.

Australian Museum: "Farewell to our friend Scott Mellish. To many, the Australian Museum is a building filled with amazing collections, specimens and exhibitions. To those of us lucky enough to work here, it is also a place filled with interesting, passionate (and occasionally downright ‘odd’) colleagues. Each contributes in their own way to what makes this Museum so special. Scott was certainly one of these. Scott worked in security for 24 years. He was also an avid cricket fan who loved the pure form of the game (I’m still not sure about this Twenty20 malarkey) and an enthusiastic amateur astronomer. Although Scott’s love of the night sky was known to many of us, just how much respect he commanded within astronomy circles came as a surprise. Not one to blow his own trumpet, Scott was a distinguished and award-winning member of the Astronomical Society of NSW. He was also a renowned artist whose inventive and skilful use of brushes, charcoal and black paper to capture images of deep space became known as the Mellish Technique."

Astronomical Society of NSW: "Dear Members, It is with great sadness that I have to let you know that Scott Mellish passed away late last week. Scott had been an active member for over 25 years and was awarded life membership in 2008 for his invaluable contributions to the society. He was well known for his beautiful sketches of deep sky objects, many of them done at Wiruna, which he attended regularly and deeply loved. Scott’s knowledge of the night sky was remarkable and he would often observe some of the most obscure objects from Abell planetary nebulae to the Fourcade-Figueroa object. For this he was awarded the Mike Kerr Award for Observational Astronomy in 2010.

He served on the committee as observations officer and was a regular contributor to “Universe” with observation reports, movie reviews, articles on string theory and many other topics, receiving the Editor’s Award on many occasions. Scott had a great many friends in the Society who will all miss him deeply and the Society will be that much poorer without him. The funeral arrangements are not know at this time, but I will let you know once they are available.

Regards,

Paul Hatchman

President ASNSW"