Nightskies_09-32

Jeff Green | Aug 13, 2009

By Jeff Green

Leo Enright, noted astronomer and educator and the long-time author of the monthly Night Skies column for the Frontenac News, died at his home on Sharbot Lake earlier this week.

Leo came to Sharbot Lake in the 1960s to teach Latin at Sharbot Lake High School. When Latin was eliminated from the Ontario curriculum, Leo joined the English department, where he remained until his retirement in 1998.

It is as an amateur astronomer that Leo is best known. He maintained an observatory at his home, where he made daytime and night-time observations of the sky. He received many honours from the Royal Astronomical Society, which commissioned him to write “The Beginner's Observing Guide” in 1991. (The book is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy)

In 2001, a minor planet that had been identified by Leo's friend David Levy in 1993, was officially named Ensab, after Leo and his wife Denise Sabatini, who is a well-known astronomer in her own right.

Leo has made presentations in schools and at public events over the past few years, although he has been spending part of the year in Florida, where Denise Sabatini has been employed.

Whether he was in Sharbot Lake or Florida, the Night Skies Column has arrived faithfully in the News’ email box near the end of every month for longer than anyone at the paper can remember.

He will be missed by the staff at the News and by readers and astronomy lovers throughout eastern Ontario and beyond.

He will also be missed by his fellow parishioners at St. James Catholic Church in Sharbot Lake, where he attended services each week, including last Sunday.

The News would like to extend our condolences to Denise Sabatini and other members of Leo's family.

(News of Leo's passing was just getting to us on Tuesday night, as this week's Frontenac News was being completed, so we have no information about any memorial services for him).