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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


Viewing Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS when it enters the evening sky

Link here. For those living in the northern hemisphere, Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will be bright and visible to the naked eye just after sunset beginning tomorrow.

“As soon as October 11th, ambitious comet spotters may pick up the comet during twilight just above the western horizon,” says Sky & Telescope Contributing Editor Bob King. “Binoculars will help you see the comet throughout its appearance.”

About 40 minutes after sunset on Friday, find a spot with a good view down to the western horizon. The first thing that will catch your eye will be the bright planet Venus, the Evening Star — that’s your starting point. Hold your fist out at arm’s length; the comet is about 2½ fists to Venus’s right. The comet will still look tiny in Friday’s twilight — like a hazy star with a small tail — and will set while twilight is still in progress.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (pronounced choo-cheen-SHAHN) will remain visible for the next ten days, with the best viewing likely from October 13th to October 16th.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

5 comments

  • F

    “Hold your fist out at arm’s length; the comet is about 2½ fists to Venus’s right.”

    This is an interesting way to describe the location. “. . . to Venus’s right.”

    Since we do not know if Venus is “facing” us or “facing” away, we cannot know if we should look to the right or left of the planet as WE see it.

  • Ray Van Dune

    Haven’t heard any more about an FAA flight license. I wonder if all the hopes will be dashed, or whether there will be a last minute issuance on Friday.

    Of course I was always of two minds about why so many licenses were issued at the very last moment: was it to flex the regulatory muscles and let Elon know who was boss, or was it to prevent an environmental stay from a sympathetic judge?

    Or, it just occurs to me, was it perhaps both?!

  • John

    Americans will do anything to avoid using the metric system or azimuth and elevation.

    “To the right of Venus”. At least that’s where I’ll start looking.

    Linked article: As twilight fades on Monday, October 14th, it will be two fists to the upper right of Venus (if seen from the northern U.S.) or to the right of Venus (if seen from the southern U.S.). As twilight turns to night, the comet will remain in view, its long, straight tail pointing up from the horizon.

    Hope it’s big and bright!

    And harbingers doom.

  • John observed:

    “Americans will do anything to avoid using the metric system or azimuth and elevation.”

    Imagine, if you will, a world in which the vasty great majority of people, could not tell you what ‘azimuth’ was, if a year’s salary were at stake. Much seems to have been made recently about the American propensity to describe weights and measures in terms of familiar objects. That’s not stupid, it’s practical.

    If I say something is ‘refrigerator-size’, anyone who has seen a domestic reefer immediately grasps the concept. If I say the object is 2m high, 1m square, and weighs 150kg, you may well grasp it, but you have to process the information for a split-second. And, a lot more verbiage to describe the same concept.

  • Jay

    Finally got to see it tonight! You can see it with the naked eyes, but I did bring some binoculars for the wife.

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