Two for the Egoboo File
(Yes, I do actually have an Egoboo File. It's in the basement.)
Gary Westfahl of the University of California at Riverside, a science fiction critic whose work I have often admired, quoted our 1977 filksong "Home on Lagrange" in his 1996 book Islands in the Sky: The Space Station Theme in Science Fiction Literature. This I learned because there is a new paperback edition, which has been swallowed by Google Books.
Our parody is offered as evidence that stories of space stations often invoke the American frontier. Read the relevant passage here.
We originally wrote it to poke fun at the grandiose proclamations of prophets advocating space colonies. The title pun (about Lagrange points in celestial mechanics) motivated us more than the connection between a cowboy song and the space-type frontier. But the song does express a manifest-destiny approach to the wide-open spaces, so I can't disagree that it's relevant...
Turning to another bit of egoboo, yesterday at North Central College's Oesterle Library I participated in an event celebrating 400 years since Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens; you can read about it in today's Daily Herald. A new NASA image combining views of the Milky Way's center from three different space telescopes was unveiled.
Photos by Thomas Gill, courtesy of North Central College.
The affair was a great success. About 70 people showed up to hear about astronomy on a Tuesday afternoon. The Oesterle's Emily Prather-Rodgers was mistress of ceremonies. Three faculty members, Richard Wilders, Michael de Brauw, and John Zenchak, gave fine talks about Galileo and his work. Visitors examined the library's first edition of Galileo's Dialogo and peered through a modern copy of his first telescope. My job was to give context to the Milky Way picture and explain a little about the objects it reveals. I had a grand time.
Gary Westfahl of the University of California at Riverside, a science fiction critic whose work I have often admired, quoted our 1977 filksong "Home on Lagrange" in his 1996 book Islands in the Sky: The Space Station Theme in Science Fiction Literature. This I learned because there is a new paperback edition, which has been swallowed by Google Books.
Our parody is offered as evidence that stories of space stations often invoke the American frontier. Read the relevant passage here.
We originally wrote it to poke fun at the grandiose proclamations of prophets advocating space colonies. The title pun (about Lagrange points in celestial mechanics) motivated us more than the connection between a cowboy song and the space-type frontier. But the song does express a manifest-destiny approach to the wide-open spaces, so I can't disagree that it's relevant...
Turning to another bit of egoboo, yesterday at North Central College's Oesterle Library I participated in an event celebrating 400 years since Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens; you can read about it in today's Daily Herald. A new NASA image combining views of the Milky Way's center from three different space telescopes was unveiled.
Photos by Thomas Gill, courtesy of North Central College.
The affair was a great success. About 70 people showed up to hear about astronomy on a Tuesday afternoon. The Oesterle's Emily Prather-Rodgers was mistress of ceremonies. Three faculty members, Richard Wilders, Michael de Brauw, and John Zenchak, gave fine talks about Galileo and his work. Visitors examined the library's first edition of Galileo's Dialogo and peered through a modern copy of his first telescope. My job was to give context to the Milky Way picture and explain a little about the objects it reveals. I had a grand time.