SFScope is taking a break. There may be a few posts/updates, but for the next week and a half, regular business will be on vacation.
“Why?” you may ask. Several small reasons. But the main, big reason is that I’ve been accepted to this year’s Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop, and I’m getting on an airplane absurdly early Sunday morning to spend a week in Wyoming.
Launch Pad is a “NASA-funded workshop for established writers held in beautiful high-altitude Laramie, Wyoming. Launch Pad aims to provide a ‘crash course’ for the attendees in modern astronomy science through guest lectures, and observation through the University of Wyoming’s professional telescopes.” I’m excited, thrilled, and honored to have been chosen as one of the few writers to attend this year’s workshop, and to get the most out of it, I’m putting SFScope (as well as my activities with Fantastic Books) on hold for the time I’m out there. I’m scheduled to return on the 18th, but I expect to be completely exhausted, and rather than pushing myself beyond normal endurance, I’m not planning to get back to SFScope until the 20th (the 41st anniversary of Apollo 11’s landing on the Moon).
In the meantime, enjoy the solar eclipse (while I’m in the air) on Sunday the 11th. It will only be visible from a narrow corridor in the southern hemisphere, crossing over Easter Island and the Cook Islands, but it’s an interesting event to mark the beginning of the workshop.
I’m sorry you won’t be able to get your regular news fix for the week, but thank you in advance for understanding.
—Ian, the Editor