The TV series Star Trek was hugely popular around the world and a new book uses themes from it to provide a beginner’s guide to the cosmos. As a child, astronomy guru Andrew Fazekas was fascinated by the series and inspired to learn more about the universe, and he hopes his book will inspire readers in the same way.
“I remember watching…reruns of Star Trek with my dad…and barraging my dad with millions of questions about ‘what’s going on,’ being the typical curious child,” said Fazekas.
Hooked on star gazing and Star Trek
“I guess I beat my dad down with so many questions about space and space exploration he actually went out and bought a telescope.” The two would take it to the top of their 14-storey apartment building in Montreal and “take our own trekking the night sky adventure of looking at the moon and Jupiter and all that. So I got hooked with star gazing and Star Trek at a young age.”
ListenAs he grew up and delved into both, Fazekas realized that there was a very strong foundation of science in entire the TV series and that was no accident. He notes that the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry involved real scientific consultants in its production. NASA scientists, astronomers, physicists and others helped flesh out the scripts and make sure the scenes were shot as realistically as possible.
National Geographic endorsed the idea
National Geographic liked Fazekas’s idea of marrying his two interests to create a book who’s title says it all: Star Trek: The Official Guide To The Universe: True Science behind the Starship Voyages. It published the book promising it would “open the readers’ eyes to the fascinating world of astronomy while giving them a treasured bit of Star Trek memorabilia.”
The book explores dozens of celestial objects, red giants, white dwarfs, solar system exoplanets and has easy instructions on observing the night sky with the naked eye. It includes more than 400 colour images, some artists’ interpretations and some images generated by recent NASA missions.
William Shatner, the cosmic swashbuckler, introduces
And to top it all off, the man who played Captain Kirk, William Shatner, has written an introduction to the book. “He is to me the ultimate cosmic swashbuckler,” says Fazekas. “He really embodies this adventurous spirit…In real life (he) is very much an advocate of science and a lover of science fiction. He’s written his own science fiction novels. I thought he was the perfect person.”
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