George Alcock is acknowledged by professionals worldwide as having been one of the most successful amateur astronomers of the 20th century. In 1959 he found a new comet - the first to be discovered in Britain since 1894. He scanned the night sky until his death in 2000, in the hope of adding to his remarkable tally of discoveries: five comets and five novae. A Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Geographical Society, he was also a meteorologist: and a keen naturalist, ornithologist and geologist.

'George Alcock is one of the best and most dedicated comet and nova-hunters of all time.' Sir Patrick Moore