Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop

This summer, in a galaxy far, far away (aka Laramie, WY), I’ll be attending the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop!

Launch Pad is a workshop for established writers held in beautiful high-altitude Laramie, Wyoming. Launch Pad aims to provide a “crash course” for the attendees in modern astronomy science through guest lectures, and observation through the University of Wyoming’s professional telescopes.

Five and a half days of lectures will cover the fundamentals of introductory astronomy at the college level… Topics we will cover: the seasons, phases of the moon, historical astronomy, misconceptions, the electromagnetic spectrum, gravity and orbits, planets, stars, galaxies, and cosmology. Additional afternoon talks will focus on special interest topics like black holes, NASA missions, and extrasolar planets. Afternoon hands-on activities will include how raw Hubble Space Telescope data is transformed into poster-quality images, and several laboratory demonstrations/exercises.

I’ll get to spend a whole week with about 15 other students described as “old pros with dozens of novels/short stories to their name, comic book writers, board game writers, video game writers, TV writers, editors, etc.” I can’t wait to meet everyone and get my science on. Pretty sure this will be my celebratory t-shirt: