Wil Tirion never had any education in astronomy. He education was focused on graphic arts and design, although the starry sky and especially star maps have always fascinated him. In the field of astronomy and uranography (mapping the sky), he is what they call autodidact.
In 1977, just for his own enjoyment, he started making his first star atlas, with stars down to magnitude 6.5). It was published in the Encyclopedia of Astronomy, edited by Colin Ronan, (Hamlyn, London, 1979) and in 1981 as a separate set of maps by the British Astronomical Association (B.A.A. Star Charts 1950.0).
In 1978, still as a hobby, he started working on a larger atlas: Sky Atlas 2000.0., showing stars down to magnitude 8.0. Its publication, in 1981 (by Sky Publishing Corporation, USA, and co-published by Cambridge University Press), resulted in requests from several publishers for star maps for different purposes. In 1983 he decided to quit his job as a graphic artist and designer, and became a full time uranographer. Since then he has created several star atlases, like the Bright Star Atlas and the Cambridge Star Atlas and has cooperated with other people on larger atlases like Uranometria 2000.0. He has also created numerous star maps for astronomy books and magazines.
In 1987 he was honoured by receiving the ‘Dr. J. van der Bilt-prize’, a Dutch award for amateur astronomers.
In 1993 this was followed by a second, more international ‘award’, when a minor planet was named after him: (4648) Tirion = 1931 UE.