Dennis Mammana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dennis Mammana (born September 5, 1951 in Easton, Pennsylvania) is a nationally-syndicated astronomy writer, lecturer and sky photographer. His newspaper column "Stargazers" has run weekly since 1992, and his photos can be seen in national and international media.
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[edit] Early years
Mammana's interest in "unseen worlds" began, ironically, with a microscope, but his attention shifted skyward shortly after the launch of the first Earth-orbiting satellites Sputnik I and Echo I in the late 1950s. By the mid-1960s, he began regularly observing and photographing the sky, and built a basement darkroom where he developed and printed his own sky photographs. His first published photo was of the total lunar eclipse of April 12, 1968, and appeared in the Easton Express newspaper the following day.
[edit] Education
In 1969, Mammana was graduated from Easton Area High School, and studied physics and astronomy at Otterbein College where he received his B.A. in 1973. After completing work toward his M.S. in Astronomy Vanderbilt University, he was awarded a coveted one-year internship at the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, New York.
[edit] Career
[edit] Planetarium Production
Mammana has held positions at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C. from 1975-1978, the Flandrau Planetarium of the University of Arizona in Tucson from 1978-1986, and the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in San Diego, California from 1987-2001.
[edit] Writings
Mammana has authored six popular astronomy books for adults and children, as well as hundreds of magazine, encyclopedia and web articles. Since 1992 he has written the weekly column "Stargazers", which is the only nationally-syndicated newspaper column on astronomy, distributed through Copley News Service.
[edit] Lecturing & Teaching
As a public lecturer and teacher of astronomy and sky photography, Mammana leads national and international expeditions for the general public to view and photograph celestial phenomena such as total solar eclipses and the aurora borealis.
[edit] Photography
Mammana’s sky photography captures the heavens in ways rarely seen, and incorporates the celestial with the terrestrial to provide a unique perspective for the viewer.
[edit] Media
Mammana is a frequently invited astronomical expert on radio and television and, in the mid-1990s, “starred” in an Emmy-award-winning documentary San Diego Night Sky produced by KPBS-TV.
[edit] Currently
Mammana currently resides in Borrego Springs, California where he writes about, and photographs, the clear dark skies above the Anza-Borrego Desert.
