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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.


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 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

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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