Who am I? I’m Ray Sanders, an astronomer with nearly fifteen years of amateur astronomy experience and an education that includes astronomy and astrophysics. Currently I’m working to make the transition from “backyard astronomer” to “professional astronomer”, and I’m very passionate about observing, research, and outreach – which includes writing for sites such as Universe Today, The Planetary Society, and NASA’s Astrobiology Magazine. I also teach informal astronomy education classes for Cosmoquest.

Dear Astronomer is my personal astronomy blog where I also occasionally answer questions about astronomy and science. Additionally, I post interesting space news and astronomy-related product reviews. You could say my personal “mission” for this blog can be simply explained through the tagline “Bringing space back down to Earth”.

Many times lecturers, websites and other “personalities” over explain concepts and leave the public with more questions than answers. All too often, astronomy and science discussions can be dry and boring. When I answer reader questions here at Dear Astronomer, all efforts are made to use terminology and explanations that every day people can understand – not just other scientists.

In short, my goal is to provide information about space and science with a super-sized order of “cheeky” shenanigans, so as to help make astronomy fun and entertaining!

Please take a moment to browse through past articles and posts. If you have a question about astronomy or science, please feel free to contact me at: info@dearastronomer.com.

You can follow me on twitter ( @dearastronomer ) or even on Google+

Thank you for visiting and come back soon!