Ahh, crazy times. I am cranking away on
Astronomy magazine and finishing a huge book project for Cambridge University Press called The New Cosmos: Answering Astronomy’s Big Questions. More on that later. But I’m also getting ready to leave the country on Sunday to travel to the Starmus Festival in the Canary Islands.
Starmus will be an incredible treat, and if you’re going, I’ll look forward to seeing you there. The festival of astronomy, science, and music will stretch September 22–27 and will feature talks by a stellar array of astronomers, planetary scientists, cosmologists, biologists, and astronaut-explorers.
Astronomy magazine is the exclusive media sponsor of the conference.
I’ll be delivering a talk titled “Does the Universe Really Care about Itself? Communicating Astronomy in the 21st Century,” on Monday afternoon, the 22nd.
I am honored to be placed among such an array of guests, who will include Starmus Festival founder and director Garik Israelian, Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May, and cosmologist Stephen Hawking.
Other speakers on Monday will include Robert Wilson, co-discoverer of the cosmic microwave background radiation, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, and anthropologist Katerina Harvati.
Tuesday will start with a talk on the origin of the universe by Hawking, along with a talk on seeing the cosmos in 3-D by May, and presentations by John Mather and Mark Bosmlough, along with an exclusive screening of the film
51 Degrees.
Wednesday will offer us all an informal meeting time with VIPs and speakers, along with talks by Charlie Duke, Harold Kroto, Walt Cunningham, and John Ellis.
Thursday will see an excursion to the Teide Observatory and a 108-minute round table at the largest optical telescope in the world, the 10.4-meter Gran Telescopio Canarias.
On Friday, we’ll take an excursion to La Palma Observatory and finish the day with a Sonic Universe concert put on by Yes keyboard genius Rick Wakeman along with May.
Saturday will see a special presentation honoring Neil Armstrong and Alexei Leonov, as well as a talk on black holes by Hawking, a special performance by Wakeman, Alexandros Hahalis, and Katerina Mina, and other events.
On Sunday the 28th through Tuesday the 30th, I’ll be joining astroimagers Rogelio Bernal Andreo and Damian Peach to put on an astrophotography school at the Teide Observatory, and we’ll no doubt be soaking up the incredible sky as well as the beautiful geography and beaches of the Canaries.
Expect regular blogs on all the major activities going on at Starmus, where many stars of the astronomy world are about to converge!
See
Starmus for more information.
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