Remembering Danie Overbeek

In addition to variable stars, Danie was an active observer of occultations and sudden ionospheric disturbances, and monitored seismic activity around the world with the seismograph he built.

The AAVSO’s 26th Merit Award was presented to Danie in 1986 “...in recognition of his dedicated devotion to observing variable stars in the southern sky...resulting in over 70,000 observations of variable stars, his excellent guidance of many variable star observers in South Africa, and his valuable service on the AAVSO Council.” Danie was the recipient of three AAVSO Observer Awards: the first in 1994 for making over 100,000, another in 1997 for making over 200,000, and the third in 1999 for making over 250,000 visual observations of variable stars.

Danie with Jan Smit and Janet at Jan's garden in Pretoria, South Africa.

He was the first recipient of the AAVSO Director’s Award in 1994 for his vital contributions to variable star research. Minor Planet 5038 was named Overbeek last year to honor Danie for his contributions to astronomy.

Danie will be sorely missed—both in our archives as an observer and personally as a friend and mentor.

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