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The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

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Webb and Chandra take composite X-ray/infrared images of four famous objects

Composite Chandra/Webb image of M16
Click for original image.

Astronomers have now used the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Webb Space Telescope (working in the infrared) to produce spectacular composite false-color X-ray/infrared images of four famous heavenly objects.

To the right is the composite taken of the Eagle Nebula, also known as Messier 16. It was also dubbed the Pillars of Creation when it was one of the first Hubble images taken after the telescope’s mirror focus was fixed in 1993. From the caption:

The Webb image shows the dark columns of gas and dust shrouding the few remaining fledgling stars just being formed. The Chandra sources, which look like dots, are young stars that give off copious amounts of X-rays. (X-ray: red, blue; infrared: red, green, blue)

The other images include star cluster NGC 346 in a nearby galaxy, the spiral galaxy NGC 1672, and the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 74.

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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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

6 comments

  • GaryMike

    “…false-color…”

    For a long time I had problems with the term. Fake rendition of reality. Not actually available to our eyes and brains during our actual experiences of reality.

    Then came ‘Night Vision’ technology. Useful in ways that my eyes and brain couldn’t offer me without this new class of ‘eyeglasses’.

    False color means we can see what our eyes and brain cannot. We are able to see what in our lifetime we would never be able to see in its actuality.

    Seeing in false color is better than not ever seeing it at all.

  • Dave Walden

    As man’s technology continues on its timeless journey, a journey from the mud to the stars, fascinating aspects of existence that will “open” to our eyes and mind are timeless as well.

    Philosophically, however, such awe-inspiring images will be used as examples of the seriously silly ideas that “reality is an illusion;” man is incapable of determining “objective reality;” “the senses cannot be trusted;” etc. ad nauseum!

    Meanwhile, the battle between proponents of a freely competitive society of visionary, daring, and creative individuals, and one of anthill, beehive, or herd of lemmings, will continue – provided the latter do not precipitate a mass suicide in the name of protection of the hive, hill, or herd!

  • GaryMike

    Dave,

    America tends to innovate what it needs.

    China tends to steal what they need.

    Roughly similar to your thoughts?

  • Dave Walden

    Yes, Gary, but only in the context of socio-economics and politics. I was speaking philosophically, of those who “oppose” human progress and the freedom enabling it. The Universe, our awareness of it, our conceptual means of identifying reality, those “voices” (philosophers) who impugn each “advance,” and oppose human flourishing.

  • GaryMike

    Nature can do that with an impacting asteroid.

    I get your point(s).

    Gentlemen must be gentle.

    Until that doesn’t work. };^)

  • Jeff Wright

    Looks like THE GRIPPING HAND

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