Dr. William Patrick Sheehan (b.1954) is a practicing psychiatrist, keen amateur astronomer, and well-known author. His first book, Planets & Perception (1988), was selected as a book of the year by the ASP; his second, Worlds in the Sky, was published in 1992. His biography of the greatest observer of all time, The Immortal Fire Within: The Life and Work of Edward Emerson Barnard, was published by Cambridge University Press in 1995 and is a fascinating read. He has solved several long-standing puzzles in the history of astronomy, and in 2005 was working on a biography of W.W. Morgan. In addition, Dr. Sheehan is a well-known Mars observer, with a keen interest in the history and interpretation of Martian "canals." He was named an Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada on 2005-02-26.

Orbit type: Main Belt

Reference: MPC 52769