Dennis Mammana
Dennis Mammana (born September 5, 1951) is an 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.
Contents
Early years
Born in Easton, Pennsylvania, Mammana's interest in "unseen worlds" began 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, which appeared in The Express-Times the following day.
Education
In 1969, Mammana 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 one-year internship at the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, New York.
Career
Planetarium production
Mammana has held positions at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and 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.
Writings
Mammana has authored six 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 Creators Syndicate.
Lecturing and teaching
Mammana lectures frequently about the wonders of the heavens at resorts, on cruise ships, schools, and as an after-dinner speaker.
Enrichment travel
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.
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. He is an invited member of TWAN(The World at Night), an international team of sky photographers.
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.
Currently
Mammana currently resides in Borrego Springs, California, designated in 2009 as California's first International Dark-Sky Community by the International Dark-Sky Association. Here he writes, lectures about and photographs the sky above the Anza-Borrego Desert.
