Science writer Dava Sobel, the best-selling author of “Galileo’s Daughter,” will give a talk and sign books at 1 p.m. on March 14 at the Meadowlands Environment Center.

    Sobel will speak about her books and the International Year of Astronomy 2009, a year-long celebration marking 400 years since Galileo first pointed his telescope toward the stars.

   The event is part of the NJMC’s 40th Anniversary celebration.

   A link to her Web site is here.

  Click "Continue reading…" to learn more about Sobel and her talk,  other 40th anniversary events, and our observatory.

    Sobel is best-known for her book “Galileo’s Daughter,” which explores the relationship between the astronomer and his oldest child.

    The book is based on 124 surviving letters to Galileo from his daughter, Sister Maria Celeste.

    Published in 1999, “Galileo’s Daughter” spent five weeks at No. 1 on the New York Times non-fiction Bestseller List, won the 1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for science and technology, a 2000 Christopher Award, and was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in biography.

    Sobel’s other works include “The Planets” and the New York Times Besteller “Longitude,” about an 18th century clockmaker who solved a great scientific mystery by inventing a device to measure longitude. The book was adapted into a television drama.

     Tickets for the Dava Sobel program are $5, $4 for MEC members.      

     Preregistration is required at www.njmeadowlands.gov/ec. For more information, call 201-460-8300.

    For listings of additional 40th Anniversary events, and information on how to participate in the NJMC’s Oral History Project, visit the 40th Anniversary section of our Web site at www.njmeadowlands.gov/anniversary/intro.html.

   Area residents can study and see the stars up-close in their own backyard at the NJMC’s William D. McDowell Observatory. The observatory, which opened in 2008, features a state-of-the-art telescope with a 20-inch lens. The McDowell Observatory is open to the public on Monday and Wednesday nights from 8 to 10 p.m. Monthly astronomy classes are offered on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. For more information, call 201-460-8300 or visit www.njmeadowlands.gov/ec