LOSCON 30 GUEST BIO

Rick Shaffer is an astronomer, writer, designer, and telescope maker.   He's one of the many technocrats who claims that his decision to enter the aerospace field was influenced by the writings of Robert A. Heinlein.   In 1970, he escaped from the US Army, and in 1973 he graduated from MacMurray College in Jacksonville, IL, with a BS in Physics.   Early in his career, Rick worked on placing the the original Global Positioning Spacecraft in orbit for the US Navy, and then on the Viking, Voyager, Pioneer-Venus, Halley-Pathfinder, Magellan, and Ulysses Missions for NASA/JPL.   In recent years, Rick has been writing, teaching, and designing museum exhibits.   He has two books in print, Your Guide to the Sky, (LA: Lowell House, 1994, 1997, 1999) and Introduction to Astronomy (NY: Grammercy Press, 1999), and also redesigned the Zirpoli Memorial Solar Telescope at the Arizona Science Center.   He is president of the Verde Valley Astro-Center, a not-for-profit scientific and educational organization in Cottonwood, AZ.   He lives in Sedona, AZ, with his pet 20" telescope, Dora.