College of San Mateo professor explains the worlds beyond ours

DS: I was born in East Harlem, New York, and I have a brother, who lives in Connecticut and who is a photographer. I live in Pacifica and am a widower, losing my wife to lung cancer some years ago. I have a son named Kieran and a stepson named David. My hobbies include amateur astronomy and I have numerous telescopes in my backyard, including a solar telescope. I like studying languages and am relatively conversant in Russian and German and know a little French. My other hobby is riding my Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which I have had since 2001. I have adopted a husky, named Orion, and he is the best thing that has happened to me in a long while. He has opened doors for me in the sense of meeting new people and encouraging me to walk a lot more. He keeps me on my toes and I love him dearly.

DJ: What inspired you to study astronomy? 

DS: My mom took me to the Hayden Planetarium, which was a few subway stops from my home in East Harlem. I had gone to several planetarium shows there, and watching the sky grow darker, and seeing the stars come out and listening to this soothing, cool voice of the lecturer was magical. Connected to the planetarium was the American Museum of Natural History. In addition to the dinosaur skeletons, I loved looking at their meteorite collection. All of this convinced me to become an astronomer. My mom purchased a small telescope for me and I viewed the sky by sticking it out of the window of the projects, where I lived.

DJ: How did you get started on your professional track?

DS: After getting my M.S. degree in astrophysics, from the University of Toledo, I journeyed to San Francisco and was able to get a part-time job as a lecturer at the Morrison Planetarium. To supplement my income, I worked at ESL Inc. in Sunnyvale. However, I wanted to teach astronomy, so I got part-time lecturer jobs at City College of San Francisco, San Francisco State, Cañada College and CSM, all at the same time! I finally got a full-time position at CSM during fall 2000.

DJ: Are there teachers or mentors you would like to acknowledge?

DS: When I was an undergraduate student at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, which has now been absorbed into NYU, and when I had some difficulties with my studies, one of my professors, a particle physicist, Dr. David Stoler, told me that your brain is like a muscle. If you don’t exercise it properly, you won’t succeed. That helped me quite a bit.

DJ: What are programs at the CSM planetarium that you particularly like sharing?

DS: We have Project Star gaze, where we invite primary school student classes to learn how stars differ and what they are made of. We give them a pair of diffraction grating glasses, so that they can perform experiments in their classrooms. We have a lecture series on the first Friday of the month, where the San Mateo County Astronomical Society selects speakers, who are experts in their field. These researchers tell the public about the latest discoveries in astronomy. We have a planetarium show series occurring the second Friday of the month called the Sky Tonight. In that series, I show the public what can be seen in the skies and update them on any cool astronomical phenomena, such as meteor showers, visible comets, if any, etc.

DJ: What do you like most about your work?

DS: I enjoy teaching my students about the beauty of the heavens in the planetarium. I love it when I see the “lights” come on when students get a concept that I am conveying to them. I love talking to them outside of the classroom in my office hours and getting to know them as a person. I enjoy helping them to succeed in their studies and accomplishing their goals.

DJ: What’s one thing about the universe that most people don’t know but you wish they did?

DS: There are a number of misconceptions in astronomy. One of the more prevalent is that most people think that the North Star is the brightest star in the sky.  It is actually the 48th brightest. People usually confuse astronomy with astrology. Astronomy is a science while astrology has no scientific veracity.

DJ: What would you tell someone who wants to learn about space but doesn’t know where to start?

DS: I would tell them to see a planetarium show and speak to the lecturer after the show. Sitting in a planetarium gives one an amazing perspective of the heavens above and what they can easily see just with their own eyes. A lot of people just do not look up and are unaware of what is easily visible just above their heads.