Twenty Years Of Stargazer
With this column, Stargazer, first published in January 1990, is 20 years old. And there’s more than one irony associated with its existence.
With this column, Stargazer, first published in January 1990, is 20 years old. And there’s more than one irony associated with its existence.
Back in 1958, had anyone predicted to my University of Texas freshman English instructor that her immature 18-year-old student would become a published writer, she would have laughed while marking another “D” on yet one more of my weekly 500-word themes.
And not only did I have poor writing skills, but I had to struggle to come up with 500 words on the topics we were assigned. Now, I struggle to keep my every-other-week column down to the 500-word range.
For reasons I still can’t fathom, amateur astronomy is a hobby dominated by males, yet three women are largely responsible for helping me launch Stargazer.
In 1954 as a 14-year-old growing up on the banks of Galveston Bay, it was 81-year-old Margaret Willits who lit the stargazing flame in me. I was amazed as she pointed out stars and told me their names, outlined constellations, and knew which “stars” were really planets. She described seeing Haley’s Comet in 1910, and told me some day I could see it for myself — a day that came in 1986.
Years later in late 1989, I came up with the idea of a column, drafted four pilots, and submitted them to the Waco Tribune-Herald, my hometown newspaper. In her rejection letter, then-managing editor Barbara Elmore offered some helpful critique and invited me to resubmit if I cared to.
Disappointed, but also encouraged, I asked journalist friend Becky Gregory (now the Trib’s managing editor) to give my pilots a no-holds-barred assessment — and, boy, did she ever. Her multi-page response, akin to a Journalism 101 crash course, was incredibly helpful. I rewrote and resubmitted the pilots, and the Stargazer column was born.
In 1998 I retired from my career as social worker and college professor and began devoting more time to my amateur astronomy passion. In 2002, I began offering Stargazer to other newspapers, and it now appears in some 65 papers in 5 states.
The free email version of the column goes out to 200 people in 21 states and 7 countries, and is archived on my Web site.
As I approach my 70th birthday still loving the stars, I anticipate many more Stargazers, and I welcome your letters and emails with comments and questions. I answer every one.
• Sky Calendar.
* 11 Mon. morning: A thin crescent Moon nearly grazes the star Antares low in the southeast before dawn.
* 13 Wed. morning: A thinner crescent Moon is to the lower right of Mercury near the east southeast horizon as dawn breaks; binoculars will help.
* 15 Fri.: The new Moon produces an annular eclipse of Sun which unfortunately won’t be visible over the U.S.
* 17 Sun. evening: The crescent Moon is to the lower right of Jupiter low in the west at dusk, and the following night is above the planet.
* 23 Sat.: The Moon is at 1st quarter.
* 27 Wed.: Mars passes closest to Earth at 62 million miles, although this is not one of its closer approaches.
* 29 Fri.: Mars reaches opposition — on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun — when it rises at sunset, is up all night, and sets at sunrise; although it is much brighter than usual, a bright Moon steals the Red Planet’s thunder as it closely follows it across the sky all night tonight.
• Naked-eye Planets. Evening: Jupiter is setting in the western sky as Mars is rises in the eastern sky. Morning: Mercury, very low in the east, is at its best Jan. 27; Saturn is high in the south; Mars is in the west. Venus is now in the Sun.
