Last night our homeland at Astronomy magazine had the good fortune to receive a visit from a friend of the magazine, Dava Sobel. Dava is an award-winning science writer whose books, Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter, and The Planets, have graced the New York Times bestseller lists. She has contributed to the magazine in the past and has traveled with several editors on trips around the globe in the past to see solar eclipses. Last night, September 24, she gave a talk and introduced a wonderful new planetarium movie at the Daniel M. Soref Planetarium in Milwaukee, and Kalmbach Publishing Co., Astronomy’s publisher, was proud to help sponsor the event. The planetarium exists in an IMAX theater within the Milwaukee Public Museum in the city’s downtown area and offers a great setting for science education.

After a wonderful reception, Dava spoke to the large crowd of assembled guests that included many Kalmbach staff members. (Publisher Kevin Keefe, Marketing Director Dan Lance, Circulation Director Ken Meisinger, Art Director LuAnn Belter, Illustrator Roen Kelly, and editors Rich Talcott, Liz Kruesi, Bill Andrews, and Karri Ferron were among the guests.) Dava’s talk centered on Galileo’s life and achievements, appropriate for the International Year of Astronomy, and then the show, Galileo: The Power of the Telescope, provided a beautifully done overview of his life story and telescopic discoveries. If you have the chance to see this film in a planetarium near you, I heartily encourage doing so. The production quality is top-notch, the graphics spectacular, and the voice provided by Dava very well done. It was a triumph, and I look forward to hearing from you about this show when it comes to a planetarium near you.

Photos credit: David J. Eicher