As an amateur astronomer and a volunteer telescope operator at the Flandrau Science Center observatory, I enjoy sharing the night sky with the public. My primary objective, when inviting the public to look through the telescope, is to encourage them to enjoy viewing the heavens and to ask questions. I recognize that not everyone wants to be an astronomer and I certainly understand the magnitude of what is required to pursue a career in this profession.
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As a member of the front end of the “baby boomers” I can still remember learning that our sun was just an average star and we were one of nine planets orbiting it. I also learned that our Milky Way was one of several hundred billion galaxies that made up our known universe, each containing hundreds of billions of stars. That begged the question: if our star had planets then should the rest of the stars have planets too?
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Solar System for iPad initially opens with a song written specifically for the app. An instrumental version of the song “Biophillia” was written for the app by the Icelandic artist, Björk.
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