Out the airlock

After 10 years in the planetarium field, and a difficult 4 years away from it - I have decided that instead of being a fun side project where I did a few articles and taught some classes, I would transform Astro Everywhere into my professional focus. I am able to consider this as an option thanks to the support of my family and friends, the professional relationships I have built over the past 20 years of my life, and the direction and mentorship of many of the experts and leaders I have had the pleasure of working for and with. 

Dan Tell, Ryan Wyatt, and Tim Horn  are some of the most gifted planetarians in the field, and have been mentors that have helped shape both my voice as a planetarian and my enthusiasm for the discipline. Whenever I give a show, I can pinpoint the moments in which I make reference to something I learned from them, be it a turn of phrase or a specific technique in moving the Dome (to this day, whenever I do a roll while zooming back towards Earth, I hear Tim say “very good, but not so fast it makes the audience sick!).

I am so appreciative of the talented presenters who I have worked alongside some of whom taught me and some of whom I taught. When I hear or see them give a joke or a lesson that I shared with them, it makes me reflect upon the amount of pride I feel for having shared what I have learned. It also makes me pause to reflect on where I learned those techniques and jokes from. Rick Casse, Rik Sanjur, Mary Holt, Casey Selden, Angela Berti, Aaron White, Colin Eliott, Elise Ricard, Jessica Agnos and MANY more. I hope I do your voices justice as I continue to share them with my audiences. 

 It's kind of a scary thing to consider stepping out of the airlock into the unknown into what could be a dangerous hostile environment. I'm taking a huge degree of solace in the fact that I have been able to connect and communicate with those who have gone before me into this place, folks like Ryan and Scott, Kyle and Andy. They have proven a welcoming community, and offered me support and direction as I have needed it. The Pacific Planetarium Association and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific have both been amazing resources for support and connections. 

At the base of this rocket, the engine that powers it is my passion for astronomy - and for that, there are three people I must thank. Adrienne Cool, Phil Deutschle, and Brian Jacobson. 

Brian brought me to my first star party and helped me work a Dobsonian for the very first time. Also gave me a HUGE BIAS towards these heavy and ungainly telescopes I have come to love so much. 

Phil Deutschle was my first ever astronomy teacher, he instilled in me both the awareness of both how unfathomable the universe is, but also, how amazing our efforts to fathom it have been. The math and calculations made more sense when I learned the story they were telling and the physics ceased to be meaningless numbers and letters and became another way of describing what was occurring in the system. He also trusted me enough to let me help him as a TA, and gave me the confidence I needed to actually take academics and math seriously. 

Adrienne Cool showed me the power of making astronomy accessible. Her work to share her passion with ALL the students at SFSU that took her classes. She pointed me towards astronomy education and I have never looked back. From her I looked into planetariums, into classrooms, into outreach and communication. She is the inspiration for myself and so many other students when we work to reach someone who is oppositional or skeptical. When I told her what my plan was, her first reaction was asking how she could help. I hope to be half the teacher and mentor she is one day. 

I don't know what the future of AE will be, but I know that if it finds any success at all, it will be from the shoulders of these giants and they all have my eternal thanks. 

Per Ardua Ad Astra,

-Josh