About the Author

Alan W. Hirshfeld, astronomer at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and an Associate of the Harvard College Observatory, received his undergraduate degree in astrophysics from Princeton and his Ph.D. in astronomy from Yale. He is co-author of Sky Catalogue 2000.0, a two-volume astronomical reference book, and a past winner of a Griffith Observatory/Hughes Aircraft Co. national science writing award. He lives outside Boston.