Well, I met Ray last night at the Mt. San Antonio College Planetarium fund raiser. It was my second time to meet him, and it was really great! He gave a booksigning and then a lecture to a packed lecture hall full of a quite enthusiastic audience. It's actually not a very large lecture hall, so it made for a rather intimate setting.
During the booksigning I even got to take my picture with him!
During the lecture he told some really great anecdotes, and the audience was rolling. At the end he received a standing ovation (of course!) from us, his adoring fans.
Afterword, a 12' telescope mounted on a station wagon was parked behind the building pointed at Mars for anyone who wanted to look. Man, with a telescope that good, you can see Mars moving (really Earth turning relative to the sky) at a pretty good rate!
There also was a science fiction short story contest tied to the event. It was open to any Mt. Sac students, and the theme was to try and incorporate a planetaruim in the stories. They announced the winners of the short story contest. Unfortunately I wasn't one of them. If anyone is interested, I've posted my story online. Here is a link to it:
http://artconspiracy.com/conspiracy_word_gallery_item.asp?itemid=52594&id=1649072584 I also have some other stories and poetry of mine on this site, as well as some drawings, etc.
[This message has been edited by groon (edited 10-24-2003).]
