In July of 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar lander “Eagle” touched down on the Moon. 50 years later, at approximately the same time, I was on Radio New Zealand to discuss some of the stories in “Eight Years to the Moon.” For […]
I was honored to be asked to submit an op-ed to the New York Daily News in honor of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. I knew I wanted to highlight that it took the efforts of over 400,000 people to make […]
I have been meaning to post my experiences during the Great American Total Solar Eclipse on August 21, 2017 … What can I say? It’s been a busy year! So, here – a year later – is a reminiscence of that incredible […]
I’ve been known to enjoy a brew from time to time, so when I was asked to try out some cool new drinkware from UncommonGreen, I was all in. This company has been making unique glassware and other products for several years […]
Although I’m still a bit groggy after taking a red-eye flight home, I’ve been completely energized by my experiences this past weekend at the Tucson Festival of Books. What an amazing event and an incredible experience! Powered by over 2,000 volunteers, 350 […]
I am absolutely excited to be participating in the 2017 Tucson Festival of Books at the University of Arizona on March 11 and 12! This will be my first time attending such an event and I’ll be joining 350 other authors who […]
I was honored to be asked to join a radio call-in show on Maine Public Radio, “Maine Calling.” I joined host Irwin Gratz and astronomer Edward Gleason from the University of Southern Maine, and we discussed various events in space and astronomy […]
Since today is Election Day in the US, I’d like to suggest that you … buy Bob King’s new book about how to see things in the night sky WITHOUT any expensive, fancy equipment, just your eyeballs! Have you always wondered about […]
This week, I’ve been in California at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. I’ve been wanting to visit JPL for years and years, and until now it has never really worked out to do so. But I’m out here for a very special reason: […]
Today’s the last day to sign up to send your name to Mars on the InSight lander, currently scheduled to launch on in March 2016, and here’s the link to where you can sign up to send your name along with the […]
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield returns home today from his 5-month stay on the International Space Station. But I knew him BEFORE he became such an internet sensation, with all his tweeting and videos and complete awesomeness during his Expedition 34/35. Although I […]
This great video from the Symphony of Science project provides the entire history of us.
I hope when future generations look back at this time in history, or if an alien civilization ever found evidence of life on Earth, this is what they’d see. All anyone ever really wants is to be happy, and sometimes dancing is […]
As I wrote in a recent article on Universe Today: “The Royal Observatory Greenwich in the UK was the perfect setting to announce the winners of this year’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, and I was privileged to be in attendance […]
I’m getting some new visitors to my blog today, thanks to the folks at Astronomy Picture of the Day (otherwise known as APOD) who featured a picture that I took back in March of space shuttle Discovery rolling out the launchpad at […]
This is Iowa. We drive through the Hawkeye State quite often and had always talked about stopping at the Field of Dreams movie site near Dyersville. We finally went there, and eerily, it looks exactly like it does in the movie. But […]
“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases, it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams …. Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing […]
I’ve received a few emails from people wondering why I haven’t written anything on my personal blog lately. And honestly, I was surprised to look and see the last post was a month ago. I usually use Saturday mornings for catching up […]
Two rocket launches in one week! It doesn’t get any better than this! The launch of the Atlas V rocket with the Solar Dynamics Observatory on Feb. 11 was incredible! (Have I used that word before here?!) Above is an animation of […]
The launch of space shuttle Endeavour early this morning was just absolutely amazing. I tried to express what the experience was like on my post on Universe Today, but quickly ran out of superlatives. People can tell you that a shuttle launch […]
