SR 155: On the Launch Pad with Christian Ready

This week I had a blast chatting with Launch Pad Astronomy host
Christian Ready. Christian surprised me by bringing a slab of HIS
favorite cheese to the show and we had an impromptu cheese
tasting! (Can you guess what cheese Christian brought?)


This week's Dom's Cheese of the week was Gjetost, a traditional
Norwegian cheese made with caramelized goat's milk. It has a
fudge-like texture with salted caramel flavors:
https://domscheese.com/product/gjetost/


Christian is an astronomer at Towson University where he also
serves as planetarium director. He has spent much of his life in
awe of the universe. In fact, he first worked professionally in
the field of Astronomy at the tender age of 13 when he started
working at the Sproul Observatory at Swarthmore College near his
home. Initially, Christian measured the positions of stars on
hundreds of photographic plates, but he later moved on to taking
observations with the 24-inch refractor.


During his time at Sproul Observatory, Christian developed a
passion for showing the public celestial objects through their
telescopes during monthly open houses. On those inevitable cloudy
nights, he would present slideshows when people would show up
anyway.


Christian went on to earn his Bachelor of Science degree in
Astronomy and Astrophysics from Villanova University where his
passion for public outreach was reinforced as a teacher’s
assistant and presenter on weekly public viewing nights.


While working at Space Telescope Science Institute, and later at
NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center, Christian gave talks about the
Hubble Space Telescope and other astronomy topics at venues
ranging from schools, to community groups, to science fiction
conventions. He continues to give talks to this day and has been
known to make a video or two.


Christian is now an instructor at the Launch Pad Astronomy
Workshop, where he helps teach writers, editors, filmmakers, and
other creative professionals about astronomy. He views this as an
opportunity to combine his loves of astronomy, teaching, and
science fiction into one.


You can learn more about Christian by visiting his website
(https://christianready.com/) and you can subscribe to Launch Pad
Astronomy on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/christianready)


Don't forget to follow Christian on Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/christianready/), Twitter
(https://twitter.com/christianready/), and Instagram
(https://www.instagram.com/christianready/).


To learn more about Launch Pad Astronomy, go to
https://www.launchpadworkshop.org/ . You can also follow them on
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LaunchPadAstronomy), Twitter
(https://twitter.com/LaunchPadAstro), and Instagram
(https://www.instagram.com/launchpadastro/).