Giving the Gift of Exploration
I’m about to head out to a meeting of planetarium folk, a conference I’ve attended every two years since 1978. It’s always a lot of fun and there’s such a diversity of people who do the job well and love doing it. They give of themselves for the sole purpose of exciting people about astronomy and space science.
I remember my first planetarium visit; it was back in the late 1960s. I’d never heard of a planetarium, yet the moment I stepped in the door, I was taken with the space. It immersed me in the stars. More than 40 years later, I’m still playing in planetarium spaces and loving the experience.
Astronomy (and all science, really) helps us explore the cosmos and understand it. The planetarium helps that understanding, along with the many books and publications dedicated to the subjects. It’s all there, if you want to open your mind to the cosmos, and if you’re lucky enough to have a planetarium nearby, then all the better. It’s exciting science education and I love being a part of it.
I need the guys working on the dirt experiments on the Mars Phoenix Lander to help me with my floor-cleaning methods. I was doing some tidying up in my overstuffed office the other day. It’s something I do when I’m stuck in the middle of writing something and a case of temporary brain freeze hits. Usually I take a break and go get a coffee or something, but it’s too hot for coffee these days. So, sometimes I’ll do a little rearranging of the stuff in my office.