Dedication

This web site is dedicated to my late wife, Katie, who died in 1996 at the age of 46.

Some trains leave here in the morning,
Some leave in the afternoon,
Some trains, they leave here right on time,
And some, they just leave too soon, way too soon.
                                      Marc Cohn "Ghost Train"

Credits

The inspiration for this presentation comes from three sources. The first time I came across a concept like this was an essay entitled "Cosmic View". It was written in 1952 by a Dutch educator named Kees Boeke. This was before quark theory had been developed and Boeke needed only 40 powers of ten.

The next time I saw this type of presentation was in The Powers of Ten by Philip and Phyllis Morrison. The Morrisons' book is based on a film developed by the Office of Charles and Ray Eames.

The third inspiration for these pages is the Astronomical Companion by Guy Ottewell, an awesome work presenting the basics and fundamentals of astronomy in a unique and engrossing way. Ottewell uses a series of freehand sketches to illustrate our place in the universe. Originally published in 1979, it was updated and republished in 2011.

I want to thank the following people and institutions for allowing me to use their copyrighted material:

NASA -- There are many NASA images scattered throughout these pages. I have used pictures from Apollo lunar missions; Mariner, Viking, Pioneer, and Voyager planetary missions; the Galileo and Pathfinder missions; the Hubble Space Telescope, and many more. I have included links to many of these sources within my pages.

I have created links to many of the sites I used to gather information for my pages. I thank them all for the excellent work they have done on their own sites. I have included a page containing all the offsite links that I have used.

Those of you who are familiar with the works of the late British author Douglas Adams may recognize a couple of snippets from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy scattered throughout my site. I wanted to be sure to thank Mr. Adams for his writings.