Bringing astronomy down to earth – Mountain View Voice

For the last 45 years, astronomy professor Andrew Fraknoi has made it his mission to translate groundbreaking astronomical studies and the complex inner workings of the cosmos into everyday language. If a spectacular discovery about new earth-like planets or black holes splashes across headlines, it's a safe bet that radio hosts and Bay Area stargazers will look to Fraknoi to make sense of what's going on.

But after serving as the face of astronomy department at Foothill College for two decades, and playing a large part in shaping the way regional astronomers communicate with the public, Fraknoi said he's ready to retire. His final year teaching introductory astronomy concludes this month, leaving him more time to focus on public talks and a budding career as a science fiction writer.

Fraknoi said it's been the thrust of his career to turn astronomy into a subject that everyone can access, understand and enjoy, swapping out technical jargon and dry, raw data for easy-to-understand analogies and humor. Even a person who is deathly afraid of science, he said, ought to be able to understanding the new developments in the field.

Strong analogies can also be used as a springboard to convey to students the unimaginable size of celestial bodies, massive distances between stars and extreme temperatures and pressures present in space. Fraknoi said he explains the density of a neutron star -- the remains of a star after it dies and collapses into a small, tightly-packed object -- by telling students it would be like squeezing every human on earth into an area the size of a raindrop.

Oddly enough, Fraknoi's early career was shaped not just by what he learned in the classroom, but what he learned in radio. In the mid 1970s, he was invited to do an hour-long interview with KGO radio host Jim Eason. It put him in a completely different mindset: he had no blackboard, no slides and just a three-minute window to explain whatever astronomy topic got dumped into his lap.

"Jim (Eason) and I just hit it off, some chemistry just happened between us," Fraknoi recalled. "He took me under his wing and mentored me on how you answer science questions on the radio. He gave me lots of practice because he kept inviting me back every six weeks or so."

Fraknoi made frequent appearances on Bay Area radio, as Eason and other talk show hosts would use him as the station's de facto astronomy expert, a "nerdy but cool" resource to rely on when a big discovery or astronomical event becomes news. He spoke on KQED's Forum earlier this year about NASA's recent discoveries of seven earth-sized planets -- some of which appear to be habitable -- and what the New Horizons satellite taught researchers about the atmosphere and surface of Pluto.

Throughout his career, Fraknoi said there's been a "golden age" of new discoveries in astronomy that have fueled public interest and excited people, giving his students a timely angle on what they're learning in class. The field never gets boring, which is probably why the radio invitations keep coming, Fraknoi said.

"The big telescopes and our space probes have turned astronomy into a font of discoveries, it's like being a kid in a candy store," he said. "In my whole career it's just one exciting discovery, one giant telescope, after another."

Fraknoi's legacy goes beyond Foothill and local radio. He led the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) for 14 years, and molded the organization into a resource for education and outreach programs with a presence all over the world. Under his leadership, ASP launched a nation-wide program called Project ASTRO, which pairs professional and amateur astronomers with teachers in order to bring astronomy to the classroom. The local chapter includes 250 active astronomers in over 150 schools in the greater Bay Area.

Linda Shore, the executive director of ASP, said the society used to be a relatively small, locally focused organization, with more of a "spectator's role" in astronomy education before Fraknoi took the helm. Now it couldn't be any more different, she said. ASP has a presence in schools, museums and planetariums, works with park rangers and Girl Scouts, and launched a "diversity initiative" to make sure students from all backgrounds have a chance to learn about the stars.

"We're in India working with Tibetan monks and nuns in exile, teaching them astronomy," Shore said. "We're working in Chile to help astronomers do outreach in their community."

Astronomy teachers hardly have an easy task, translating complex ideas and complicated contemporary research into information that students -- regardless of background -- can digest without feeling lost or confused. Shore said Fraknoi does his best to share his tricks and strategies, but he seems to have a special knack for finding the "essence" of what's going on in space and giving it an easy-to-understand explanation.

"He's really is good at conveying the magic about what's happening, and he does it in extremely few words with a single image or idea," she said. "Part of that is an art that you're sort of born with."

ASP still serves its original role as a professional resource for astronomers, publishing technical journals that are reviewed, or "refereed," by experts in the field. But because of Fraknoi, the organization has a new role as a leading organization in how to teach astronomy to the general public, said Michael Bennett, a former executive director for the society.

"When we start talking to scientists about being better communicators with the public, they're dealing with what they perceive as a legitimate scientific organization," said Bennett.

Outside of the classroom, Fraknoi has been working for years to prepare as many people as possible for the upcoming 2017 solar eclipse, a spectacular astronomical event where the moon blots out the sun during the day. Anyone standing in the path of the "total eclipse" zone, which spans from Oregon to South Carolina, will get a precious few minutes to see the sun totally blocked out, revealing a vibrant halo that shows the sun's expansive upper atmosphere.

But how prepared are we for this all-American eclipse? At a pubic talk last month, Fraknoi said said there's a long list of logistics problems and public health concerns for the upcoming Aug. 21 eclipse that are "keeping astronomers up at night." Millions of people are going to be tempted to stare directly at the sun to watch the eclipse without eye protection, he said, which can cause serious eye damage, even during a partial eclipse. What's more, the total eclipse path includes almost entirely rural cities, meaning small towns need to start planning ahead for a massive influx of visitors, traffic jams and a sudden need for public restrooms.

Fraknoi said he began planning for the eclipse about four years ago because he predicted it would be a big deal: It's the first eclipse of the internet age that's entirely over populated land, its path includes the entire United States, and the partial eclipse is going to be visible to nearly 500 million people.

Initially, he said his dream was to have Starbucks sell safe viewing glasses that would allow people to watch the eclipse without damaging their eyes. It seemed like a foolproof idea, he said, but for whatever reason Starbucks wasn't interested. He was later able to get Google and the Moore Foundation to agree to distribute 2 million viewing glasses at 4,800 public libraries all over the country, which he believes are an ideal location to reach as many people as possible.

"Despite the internet taking over things, libraries are still thriving enterprises," he said.

After wrapping up his teaching career, Fraknoi said he plans to shift gears toward writing, particularly science fiction that about science and astronomy. He said he's already joined a writers group and is coming up with stories regularly. So far, it's been a humble start to his budding hobby.

"Like many beginning authors, I have a bulletin board with rejection slips from the most important science fiction publishers in the world," he said. "But two of my stories have been published!"

A guide to the upcoming eclipse, co-written by Fraknoi, can be found online at bit.ly/2bkGSvA.