I'm a science writer and editor. I work with clients in the observatory and planetarium community, as well as my own book, web, planetarium, and other projects.
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It's the start of a new year and, as with many years past, I'm getting ready to go to the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, Texas. I've been a member since the mid 1990s and have been going to their meetings nearly every year since then.
Most years I try to post here about some of the latest and greatest and hottest news in astronomy and astrophysics that we find out about at the meeting. I'll do that again this year, and I'm going to try and put up a vodcast or two from the meeting as well. So, keep your eyes peeled for astronomy news and maybe a little video program with an "insider look" at the AAS meeting!
Also in the new year, I'll be working on more vodcasting for Haystack Observatory. We have a contract to do a series called Space Weather FX for them, and the first episode is up! You can watch it here as a flash animation, but by all means, go over to their site for downloadable versions and read the background info on the series and who's working on it. Eventually it will be syndicated to iTunes and other places on the web.
Finally, I've been working on updating my web site so, if you haven't checked out my other pages, head over to TheSpacewriter.com and see what I've done.
Space Weather FX Vodcast
Note: to see this video here, you need to tell your browser not to block active content, or you need to get the Flash player.
I spent last week in Athens, Greece, at a meeting called Communicating Astronomy with the Public. About 250 or so folks from around the world attended, and we heard a number of cool presentations about people communicating astronomy through various means, including planetarium shows, lectures, films, etc. I actually presented two poster papers, one about the Griffith Exhibits and my work writing them, and the other about a vodcast project I'm involved with that will be up and available soon (more on that as it comes up).
Of course, at these meetings, some of the most interesting things we learn come from hallway conversations and discussions during coffee breaks. I got to talking with a pair of gentlemen who live and work in South Africa, Zululand, and they were telling me that they cannot afford expensive exhibits, planetarium instruments, etc. But, they do want them, so they go around to facilities around the world, asking for equipment that is no longer used, exhibits that are being replaced, etc., so that they have something to teach their students about astronomy.
That conversation was an eye-opener. Most of us live in societies that have what they need; yet here are people who want to do what all of us space and astronomy educators/outreach types do, yet they have to beg for the leftovers from our feast. It really gave me something to think about!
In all my years of doing "outreach" and "research," I've never found one good answer to that question. It's more like there are about a jillion good answers. Ask the question in a crowd and you get answers like, "Planets." or "What came first, stars or galaxies?" or "Is there life out there?"
Back when I worked on the Griffith exhibits, one of the curators told me that there were six questions they heard the most from visitors:
Why do we have day and night? Why do the stars appear to move across the sky through the night? Why do we have seasons? How do the phases of the Moon work? How do eclipses work? What does the Moon have to do with the tides?
That makes sense, since these are things we can see most directly from our vantage point on the planet. Once you understand those, you are prepped to learn about motions of other planets, the stars, and galaxies. And, we do live in a universe that is constantly in motion.
During one of the press conferences at AAS a week or so back I thought about the questions people ask about astronomy, and contrasted them with the questions astronomers ask about the cosmos. They are complex questions, but no more or less important than the ones "non-astronomers" ask. For example, one set of press conferences focused on black holes. These grab public attention because they're such weird celestial animals. Most people want to know things like, "How do you detect them?" and "What's it like inside one?"
Well, actually, astronomers want to know those things, too, and we have figured out ways to detect them, and know where to look for them. The questions astronomers are now starting to ask are things like "Do they exist in the centers of all galaxies?" and "What properties of black holes tell us about how they form?"
Eventually they'll get the answers, which will find their way into public lectures where audiences can glean a little more about the universe as astronomers see it.
There's not one Big Question about the universe. It's more like a million, billion, trillion little ones that we seek to answer so that we can understand the whys and wherefores of the stars, planets, and galaxies that populate the cosmos.
The astronomy profession is a small community of kindred souls all focusing on dozens of different ways to understand the science of the cosmos. I go to astronomy meetings pretty frequently (well, at least once or twice a year), to catch up on the latest and greatest in astronomy research. Mr. Spacewriter has accompanied me to a couple of meetings because I wanted him to experience the science being presented, and so he could meet some of the same folks. At the opening reception of the meetings, we've run into many, many people I've worked with or went to school with "back in the day." And, marvelled at the fresh infusion of new blood into the profession. Of course there are folks from NASA and many research institutions at the meetings, but also people like Pamela Gay and Fraser Cain, who are the main drive behind Astronomy Cast. Pamela (who is also a university professor) is doing a lot more than research and teaching in astronomy. Like me, she loves to share astronomy with the public, in any way she can.
There are also a good many very talented science writers who attend AAS meetings, reporting on the science "hot off the presses." It's been an honor to meet some of them, too. Where else could I have met New York Times science writer John Noble Wilford? He attended a great many AAS meetings, always asking the astute questions and subtly drawing out an education in astrophysics through his questions. Or Dutch writer Govert Schilling? Or many others who have attended these sessions over the years.
As a writer, I've found many outlets for the material I learn at astronomy meetings. Of course, I use the science in my documentary shows. But, for the past few years, in addition to my fulldome show production work through Loch Ness Productions, I've been contracted by various observatories to work as an editor and outreach person. The work runs the gamut from writing and/or editing press releases to creating exhibits. Lots of fun, and I'd love to do more of it.
And, so I shall. To wit: in a very short time, Mr. Spacewriter and I will be starting production on some vodcasts under a NASA grant with MIT Haystack Observatory. And, much of the material we're going to talk about is from papers I've heard and read about at AAS meetings, as well as from direct contact with astronomers in their research settings. Through all my "productions," I hope to excite the downloading public about the science these guys are doing. I want to show their enthusiasm and love of subject to the rest of the world, because astronomers really are as much the stars of my work as the stars they research and explore.
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Adot's Notblog A fellow traveler blogger and astronomy enthusiast!
Astronomy Blog An astronomy blog pondering the big questions
