Olaf Hassel (1898 -1972)
Astronomer
Introduction
Olaf Hassel was a Norwegian amateur astronomer. He is known for his discoveries of the comet Jurlov-Achmarof-Hassel in April 1939 and the Nova V446 Herculis on 7 March 1960.
Olaf was born deaf. When Hassel was 1 year old, his family found out he was deaf. He went to the Christiania Public School for the Deaf. In the school, he received training as a designer. He became interested in astronomy when he was in his final years at school. In order to continue exploring his interest in astronomy, he read a lot of books and newspapers about astronomy. Finally, he joined the Nordic Nova Society and was assigned to observe the constellation Gemini for new stars or comets.
In 1939, Hassel discovered a comet in the constellation Andromeda while observing R. Trianguli, a binary star. The comet was named "Comet Hassel 1939", later renamed "Comet Jurlof-Achmarof-Hassel" because two Russian astronomers had also found it. In 1960, he discovered a nova. near Hercules and Aquila, and was called "Nova Hercules 1960 (Hassel). The Fridtjof Nansen and the American Association of Variable Star Observers honored him with awards for his discovery. The Norwegian Astronomical Society elected him as an honorary member in 1969. He worked at the Meteorological Institution of Oslo from 1941-1968 continuing his studies and photography work of the heavens.
Olaf also contributes a lot to the development of science education for the Deaf community. Mr. Hassel was active in the Norwegian Deaf community and knew Norwegian Sign Language. He taught Deaf people in his community about astronomy. He went to conventions for deaf people and showed them all the pictures he took at work. He read lips and wrote to communicate with the people he worked with.
Difficulty and how to overcome
Since Olaf was born with deafness, he had gone to a deaf school. In this case, he had very few opportunities to learn some knowledge of science, especially astronomy. After he finished his deaf school study, his father did not want him to study further and asked him to stay at the farm. However, Olaf liked learning so he read a lot of books during his free time. His family did not have enough money for Olaf to buy a telescope, so he laid up money to buy him a rack telescope.
Olaf’s interest in astronomy played a very important role to help him succeed in Astronomy. During the First World War, Olaf bought books from an old school and then started his lifelong time interest in astronomy.
