By Professor Todd Brown / Contributor

By Professor Todd Brown / Contributor

Last week’s eclipse: in case you missed it.By Professor Todd Brown / Contributor

A long time ago, in a mall far, far away, my parents would let me browse through a pre-Barnes & Nobles bookstore while they went shopping. The store always seemed to be run by a generic-looking person that was about my twice my age at the time: a college freshman. For being of the obviously type that was not going to buy something, they were gracious and asked if they could help me. I would ask for the astronomy section and they immediately would guide me to the astrology section. I smiled and thanked them and when they wandered off, I quietly crept to the far right side of the store where I knew my books were. So began my days where astronomy and astrology were closely intertwined. Actually, it reflected history at large: the astrology “section” was browsed first by humanity and then came astronomy.

By Professor Todd Brown / Contributor

By Professor Todd Brown / Contributor

By Professor Todd Brown / Contributor

Ten years ago, I married a woman who was not only a physicist like myself, but had shown, through years of testing, that she could tolerate with a smile my worst trait: an astronomy habit.

By Professor Todd Brown / Contributor

By Professor Todd Brown / Contributor