Dr. Larry Krumenaker, Author, Journalist, Educator

I will be giving a public book talk about the Atlanta Campaign, the various defense (and offense) line during the Siege of Atlanta, and most importantly, where the lines are on today's Atlanta area landscape and what's still left to see. I will be signing books at well. July 11 (Saturday) at 1 PM at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. It's FREE! Come and listen and say hello!

White dwarf stars are usually thought of as just one of several ending points for stars. Did you know they have after-lives? Things can happen to a star after it has ‘died’. Read about it in the latest issue of The Galactic Times on Substack. Also, unlike a Beatles song, there isn’t a Strawberry Moon forever, especially if you happen to like the June Full Moon in other times or cultures. Plus a little observing project….

In This Issue:
Cover Photo — Such A Brilliant Pair

Welcome to The Galactic Times Inbox Magazine Issue #113!

This Just In — White Dwarf After-Lives

Sky-Lites — Strawberry and Other Full Moons; Losing Jupiter and Mercury Soon but Gaining Saturn in Evening Sky; Comparing Two Stars With Lunar Conjunctions

Astronomy in Everyday Life - Crusty Astronomy

I am not a robot….I am not a robot…..

And should we have robots, i.e. AI, in Astronomy Education and Communication?

This current issue of The Classroom Astronomer on Substack discusses various aspects of education and public communication of astronomy mostly from the recent Communicating Astronomy with the Public (CAP) conference in Armenia , sponsored by the IAU. Also, two resources you can use to introduce or explain topics of astronomy using the alphabet and music.

In This Issue:
Cover Photo - Humans and Artificials

Welcome to Issue #56 of The Classroom Astronomer! - Biting the AI Bullet

AI in Astronomy Communication (at the CAP Conference in Armenia)

- AI Uses in Science Communication - AI Ethics in Citizen Science - The Role of Humans in AI - AI in Storytelling - Conclusions?

Cosmic Connections -

- Alphabetical Astronomy for the Public - Astro Music to Start a Class for Non-Majors

(Think of the tune Bad Moon Rising by Creedance Clearwater Revival)
I see a Blue Moon a’rising.
I see two of them, in fact.
They are not rare, it’s surprising.
May 31st, I’ll say with tact.
(Unlike Brian May, I’m just an astronomer and an amateur musician….)
And if you want to know why 75% of all years have Blue Moons, and there are TWO different ways to get them, not just the second Full Moon of the Month way. In fact, that way of reckoning them is less than a century old as a method. The actual method in use for around 500 years is…discussed in the latest issue of The Galactic Times. And, a bit of real astrophysics behind this is due to Johannes Kepler!
Subscribe to The Galactic Times on Substack to get more astronomical facts, if not always tact! Or poetry,,,,

I am pleased to announce that Hermograph Press has a new astronomy book division, Galactic Times Books, and its first and next two books can be seen at https://www.thegalactictimes.com/galactic-times-books .

The first book, written by yours truly, is at the printer now and due for shipping to customers on or about June 1st, and is called From Out of the Sky… . It is about the crazy history of meteors for the state of Alabama. Here you will read about the Deep South’s only meteor crater, with directions, maps and photographs of three trails to explore it. Then travel a short ways to visit the sites where a nine-pound meteor hit a woman…and she lived to tell the tale about it, the only documented such case! Here, too, was a meteor storm that gave birth to a jazz song and a state license plate stating Stars Fell on Alabama, back in the day when nobody believed rocks fell from the sky. (At the end of this message is a discounted pre-publication purchase offer.)

Even if you aren’t in or going to Alabama, you can not only use this book for virtual tours but also to jump start yourself into learning the basics about meteors, fireballs, meteor showers and craters. From Out of the Sky… shows you how and when to watch meteor showers all year long and how to do so and what you can figure out about the meteors traveling through space and the atmosphere. There have been numerous reports in the news about fireballs in the skies around the Earth. Here is information on how to watch them in your backyard or on the internet. The book will also guide you in how to tell if that rock you found in your back yard is a meteorite or a meteor-wrong (i.e. an Earth Rock).

Between now and May 31st you can purchase this $19.99 book at a pre-publication price 25% off, — $14.99. Go to the Hermograph Press online store at https://www.hermograph.com/store and reserve your copy today!

Table of Contents

What is a Falling Star Anyway?

The Wetumpka Crater, Space Tourism on Earth

The Meteoric Bruising, the Sylacauga Event

The Not-Yet-Stormy Lion

What Other Places in Alabama Did Stars Fall?

Determining a Meteorite from a Meteor-wrong

What Can You Do With Meteor Showers?

What Can You Learn from Fireballs?
About the Author

Pictures and sample texts on the book’s website!

— LK

I want to tout an article I wrote that just got published! This was an article on un-teaching science misconceptions! The idea of the article is to not just do a demonstration but to use the scientific method to gather all the usual hypotheses for some phenomenon and test them all using the same tools and model items and see which hypothesis produces the same phenomenon as observed. The two phenomena used in the two-page article were the causes of the seasons and where are the different natural things needed to make a rainbow--you, the Sun, rain.

The article is in the May issue of The Physics Teacher, from the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), Volume 64, #5, pp. 430-1. If you are a member of AAPT, it is online at https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0333454 . It is not freely available online to non-members and their copyright rule is it can’t be posted online by the author for 12 months. However, I am allowed to post the final version during the editing process, a PDF that is virtually identical with very minor word changes! So I put that on the Classroom Astronomer webpage, at https://www.classroomastronomer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/1/2026/04/TPT-miscons-final-submission.pdf.

For the second time in under a year, I have written an article for a magazine (what I USED to do all the time!) and it is scheduled to be published in the May issue of The Physics Teacher. A publication of the American Association of Physics Teachers, it is called Busting Misconceptions Through Modeling, how to find and remove student (and teacher) misconceptions on science topics, in particular seasons causes and the physics of rainbows. Look for it!

Two new, unplanned books are now on the work bench. One is astronomy based, the other an historical travel guide to a Revolutionary War general. Details when they are more completed, one of which has to be done by May 1st. Stay tuned for announcements AND Pre-publication discount offers!

After having an illness, I produced FOUR newsletter issues last week, three of which were (mostly) duplicated between The Galactic Times and the Classroom Astronomer newsletters.

For TGT, Issue 109:

The different names of the April Full Moon, a planetary traffic jam in the April dawns, a Sungrazing comet reminder and info for the first good meteor shower of the year, the Lyrids.

For TCA 54, a partially paid subscriber issue, a simple lesson on busting moon phase misconceptions of their causes. Then three Star Trek stars are explored in the Exploration of the Universe with Big Data Project. This part was shared with TGT109PA

Issues 109PB, and PC were identical with TCA 54PB and PC, continuing the Exploration with four non-Trek stars that are interesting on their own, and 3 stars from yours truly’s research past. Thus all of our List of Ten stars have had their first glances of general knowledge. Next issues of Exploration will be diving deeply.

COOL. The sounds of Xray-reflecting ringed planets.

YUCKKKKKK. A million mirrors in orbit??

ICK. Growing food (badly) with lunar or martian soil.

and Finally….GULP….Were you born on March 28th? Are you a whale, a sea monster, or a Fish?

Read it all in the latest issue of The Galactic Times.