Dear friends of Star Trek,
Please allow me to introduce myself. I am one of the co-discoverers of Comet Hale-Bopp, which many of you should remember from its appearance in our skies several years ago. I am also a professional astronomer, and am director of a small educational and research organization that I started several years ago here in New Mexico. And, I should add, I've also been a long-time Star Trek fan, ever since the earliest days when Captain Kirk and his crew were taking the Enterprise to places "where no man has gone before."
It seems hard to believe, but this coming July marks the 10-year anniversary of the Hale-Bopp discovery. To mark the occasion, I am having a two-day celebration on July 22 and 23 (Friday and Saturday), to be held at the Tays Special Events Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico (on the campus of New Mexico State University — Alamogordo). I am inviting numerous individuals from the fields of science, space, and science fiction to come be a part of this event and to help celebrate the discovery anniversary with me. We will be having several side events in conjunction with the main event, including — hopefully — a benefit concert.
I am utilizing this event in part to be a fundraiser for a project I'm developing called "Earthrise." This is a project I started working on about two years ago, and is an effort to develop an astronomical educational center here in the New Mexico mountains — "immediately adjacent to the site from which Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered" — that I envision as eventually becoming the nexus of a global network of such facilities. My ultimate goal is to create an environment that will allow and encourage students from around the world to collaborate on projects and share in their common humanity. I've got more details about Earthrise [at the link below].
As a long-time Star Trek fan, and as someone who subscribes to and is attempting to bring about the humanitarian philosophy that underlies the Star Trek universe, I would be honored for any actors and other individuals associated with Star Trek to come be our special guests for the celebration event in July. I will be happy to discuss details about participating with anyone who might be interested in attending; I can be reached via e-mail at ahale@swisr.org and/or via phone at (505) 687-2075.
I look forward to hearing from you, and I hope to see some of you in July.
Sincerely,
Alan Hale, Cloudcroft, New Mexico
PS — If you attended the Great Bird of the Galaxy convention that was held in El Paso in November 2003, we've met, and you probably signed the telescope tube that I was able to raffle off and thereby help raise enough funds to acquire the property for the Earthrise site. Many thanks!
