I was born on March 23, 1956. I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. I have been employed at Washington University in St. Louis since 1985, where I am a programmer analyst, and I occasionally teach classes on certain software programs. I married my wife Kathy in 2005, and I have two sons, David and Michael, from a previous marriage.

My interest in astronomy began in 1965. Although I was very interested in the Mercury and Gemini space programs while in grade school, it was Mariner 4's close-up images of Mars on July 14 of that year that hooked me on this hobby. I received my first telescope, a 1.5-inch refractor, during Christmas of 1965, and spent the next two years observing the moon, which was about the only thing worth looking at with such a telescope.

Seeing that I continued to show an interest in astronomy, my parents bought me a 2.5-inch Jason-Empire refractor in March of 1968. This scope was large enough for me to really enjoy the moon, as well as observe most of the planets and hundreds of deep sky objects. I have since purchased a 6-inch Criterion reflector (1973), 20x80 binoculars (1976), a 13.1-inch Coulter Odyssey reflector (1985), an Orion ShortTube 80, an 8-inch Celestron Newtonian reflector, an Orion Astroview 120, and an 8-inch Meade LX-200 GPS (2005).

Comet Kohoutek of 1973/1974 changed my life. Not only was my observation of it on November 30, 1973, my first sighting of a comet, but the early predictions of this comet's potential greatness sparked something inside of me that took me to libraries in search of information on comets. This quest for comet information has never stopped and has led to my writing the books Comets: A Descriptive Catalog in 1984 and Meteor Showers: A Descriptive Catalog in 1988.

I have also been published in Astronomy, Icarus, Mercury, the Journal of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, Meteor News, the Journal of the International Meteor Organization, and numerous club newsletters.

I continue to observe and research comets and meteor showers. As of mid-2004, I had made over 1800 observations of 130 comets. With respect to meteor showers, I do enjoy watching the big ones, like the Perseids of August and the Leonids of November, but I am very interested in the minor meteor displays as well, and enjoy spending time watching for these.

My current book project is called Cometography and I am writing it for Cambridge University Press. Spanning six volumes and nearly 3000 pages, it will give descriptions of every comet recorded by mankind from ancient times up through 1999. The first volume, covering all comets seen up through 1799, was released during October 1999, while the second volume, covering the comets of the 19th century, was released in December 2003. I just sent the manuscript for volume 3 to Cambridge and am editing volume 4.

Since I have two kids of my own, it has been a lot of fun introducing them to the stars. This, in turn, got me interested in educating others about astronomy. I have been the Sky Search badge couselor for the Girl Scouts since 1992 and have been an Astronomy merit badge counselor for the Boy Scouts since 1995. I also give talks at various local schools. During 1999, the St. Louis Academy of Sciences invited me to join their guest speaker list. Between the scouting programs and the Academy of Science I have helped educate more than 1400 children about astronomy (most in the last 5 years), which I feel is one of the most rewarding of my accomplishments.

One of my most exciting opportunities came in September 1999, when Peter Jenniskens (SETI Institute at NASA/Ames Research Center) offered me a position on the 1999 Leonid MAC (Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign), a joint NASA and United States Air Force mission over western Europe and the Atlantic Ocean to study the November 1999 appearance of the Leonid meteor shower. I worked on the flux measurement team using light intensified cameras and video head displays to determine the population density of the Leonid meteor shower on three nights around the time of maximum. You can read about my adventure.

Clear nights are sometimes very difficult for me. Do I observe comets or continue to write? In recent years the latter usually wins out, but the bright comets in 1996 and 1997 began pulling me back outside again and I look forward to some interesting comets in 2006!

My web sites:

Comets and Meteor Showers
cometography.com

My astro images:

Film
Video
MallinCam