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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
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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.


At the rim

at the rim

On a lark, last week I called Xanterra, the vendor that runs the hotels on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, to see if they had any rooms available anytime during the summer. Diane and I wanted to do a day hike down the Hermit Trail, and to do it we needed to stay at a hotel the night before and the night after.

To my surprise, they had a rim view room available in Bright Angel Lodge, for tonight and tomorrow. The picture on the right is taken from our room, right after we arrived earlier today. I am right now sitting at that window, watching the sun set on the canyon buttes even as I type. Yowza!

I will post more tonight, and some tomorrow night as well. I will also do my podcast with John Batchelor tomorrow, live, from this room. Most cool, I must say.

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

8 comments

  • Gary M.

    Doing this on a lark is the first cool part.

    Doing it is the second cool part.

    Yowza indeed. Hat tip to you sir.

  • Phil Berardelli

    I’m mightily impressed, Bob — and a little jealous. Enjoy and report.

  • Mitch S.

    Enjoy!
    But if you’re a sleepwalker, I suggest keeping the door double locked – don’t want to be sleepwalking out there!

  • Joe

    Magnificent view!

  • Frank

    This is the little stuff in life that adds joy. You scored well Bob!

  • Keith

    Shouldn’t you write “cool image time” ?

  • wayne

    Yes, pictures are always good.
    -Where is Bright Angel Lodge, in relation to the Phantom Ranch site?
    -What is the weather like this time of year?

    We just do not have this type of geology in Michigan, closest thing (on a dwarf scale & no canyons, but lots-o-tress & water) is maybe the “Pictured Rocks National Shoreline” in the Upper Peninsula. (All created by glaciers and lake erosion. Maybe 200 feet tall, max, but like’ 30-40 miles of them.)

    Great Lakes Shoreline Tour – Lake Superior’s UP Michigan coastline
    https://youtu.be/e0CCYe-VYcg
    (5:21)

  • wayne

    pivoting tangential, but Mr. Z. is going to view the Eclipse in August and this brand new Silicon Valley Astronomy lecture is very timely & informative. (Fraknoi is fun to listen to–his voice reminds me of a cartoon character from the early ’60’s.)

    The ‘All-American’ Eclipse of the Sun This August
    Andrew Fraknoi 5-24-17
    Silicon Valley Astronomy
    https://youtu.be/C2Folgs58oI
    (1:03:04)

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