Astronomy for Cloudy Nights

David Clarke gained his PhD at the University of Manchester, UK, and has worked at Institutions and Observatories around the world. In his early career, he worked on Zodiacal Light studies for the Skylab and Pioneer 10 projects. His research mainly focussed on optical polarimetric instrumentation to investigate scattering processes within stellar atmospheres, the interstellar medium, and the Earth’s atmosphere. Widely experienced as a Practical and Observational Astronomer, he has published over 130 papers and five books, one⸺an undergraduate text⸺now in 4th edition. As an educator, he served as the UK’s International Astronomical Union representative and on the Royal Astronomical Society Education Committee. He has organised support meetings for school teachers and was key in setting up the UK’s Association for Astronomy Education, being its first Editor and Printing its magazine, ‘Gnomon’. Now holding an Honorary Research Fellowship at Glasgow University, UK, following his retirement as Observatory Director, he continues with involvements in public outreach.