A lot of people out there have an interest in the heavens to one extent or another, some take it to the level of professional qualifications, some have simply educated themselves and know as much, if not more, than some professional astronomers – but the educational information available on the internet is a mixed bag – it either assumes you are new to the subject, or it assumes you are advanced – but there is no sliding scale – we intend to redress that position.
There will be a new section of the site that gives out information on various astronomy related topics – yes, initially these will be similar to what is out there, but the plan to to take things to the next level, add in video blogs and online video educational features and link to quality online astronomy/space related podcasts and other resources. It will take time to get things right, but we will get there.
In the early to mid 1970s the enimitable Douglas Adams wrote the iconic book “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”, he stated that the idea came a 1971 incident while he was hitchhiking around Europe as a young man with a copy of the Hitch-hiker’s Guide to Europe book, he recalled that “while lying drunk in a field near Innsbruck with a copy of the book and looking up at the stars, he thought it would be a good idea for someone to write a hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy as well”. However, he later claimed that he had forgotten the incident itself, and only knew of it because he’d told the story of it to so many of his friends, although some are quoted as saying that Adams mentioned the idea of “hitch-hiking around the galaxy” to them while on holiday in Greece in 1973. Either way, he penned an iconic work of comedy fiction that stands the test of time.
In honour of Douglas Adams the new section of this site will be called “The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Universe” which will have sections related to various aspects of astronomy, astrophysics and matters related to space technology – all will be Hitch Hikers Guides. I started to write the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Solar System about a decade ago – a project that has been delayed and delayed due to life and it’s many necessities and vagaries – and we kept finding out new things at such a rate, any book would be out of date before it was ever published – but the a site, like this, can be updated an realtime and kept both relevent and accurate – or as accurate as we know at that time.
