ASTRO-GAIA NEWS-LOG -- WINTER 2009

"TRIP TO THE PLANETARIUM" by STEPHANIE BATAILLER of NYC Wins 2009 Honolulu International Film Festival's Silver Lei Award for Filmmaking Excellence!

The "TRIP TO THE PLANETARIUM" live action and animation short film by NYC award-winning filmmaker Licorne Films Production Inc.'s Stephanie Batiller of Manhattan has won The 2009 HONOLULU INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL's SILVER LEI AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN FILMMAKING. Stellar Congratulations! The award will be presented on March 8 during The Honolulu International Film Festival (March 6-9, 2009) at the historic Hawaii Theatre in the heart of Honolulu. The short film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in France in May 2008, as seen in the above poster with filmmaker Batailler in poster. In a cleverly imaginative combination of live action and computer animation, the film tells the delighful and inspirational story of Mrs. Benson, a woman living on a Hudson River houseboat at the W. 79th Street pier who was an astronaut candidate in the 1960s for the Apollo lunar project but who never had the opportunity to make the space trip. Now elderly and with a walker, upon the openng of the new Rose Center for Earth & Space Hayden Planetarium, she makes what is now a long trip across West 79th Street from her Hudson River houseboat to the planetarium, and with otherworldy help, "achieves" her space travel dream. "The film makes a beautiful statement on the importance of holding onto a dream in your life and what it means for each of us, - a real New York City fairy tale that will touch you in many ways." - mathematician and space scientist Edward Belbruno, author of "Fly Me to the Moon: An Insider's Guide to the New Science of Space Travel" (Princeton University Press) and one of the "Top Ten Influential Space Thinkers." For more information visit www.triptotheplanetarium.com - www.honolulufilmfestival.com and www.licornefilms.com ******************************************************** SKYEBAT's FIRST CD ALBUM "YEAR 2051" Stephanie Batailler's space-themed music group Skyebat has its first CD album out, "Year 2051." For more information visit http://www.myspace.com/skyebat ********************************************************

NSS BOOK REVIEWS OF "SOLAR SAILS" & "SPACE ENTERPRISE" There are two NSS Book Reviews of exciting new books by current and former New Yorkers. "SOLAR SAILS: A NOVEL APPROACH TO INTERPLANETARY TRAVEL" [Springer Books] by Giovanni Vulpetti, Les Johnson of NASA-Huntsville, and Prof. Gregory Matloff of City Tech in Brooklyn is reviewed by Bart Leahy. "SPACE ENTERPRISE: LIVING AND WORKING OFFWORLD IN THE 21ST CENTURY" [Springer-Praxis Books] by former New Yorker and current Caifornian Dr. Phil Harris (www.drphilipharris.com) is reviewed by David Barett-Erich. The reviews are posted on the links below:

NYC ASTRONOMER TOM HAMILTON'S "TIME FOR PATRIOTS" ALTERNATIVE HISTORY TIME TRAVEL NOVEL IN BOOK STORES NOW!

Retired NYC astronomer Thomas Wm. Hamilton's alternative time travel science fiction novel "TIME FOR PATRIOTS: THE 21ST CENTURY CONFRONTS BUNKER HILL AND AFTER (Strategic Book Publishers) is available in bookstores. After a highly successful book launch signing party at Borders Express Books store in the Staten Island Mall on November 8, he returned there on December 13. Hamilton, who worked as an orbital analyist for the Apollo Project at Grumman, writes the "SPACE BYTES" column for this publication (see links list below for access) and writes for "Changing The Times."

On Saturday, April 11, 2009 Hamilton spoke on "TIME FOR PATRIOTS" - which has been nominated for a Sidewise Award as the Best Alternate History Novelof 2009 - and his work on the Apollo Project and other space programs at the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County conference in the Saddle River Valley Cultural Center in Upper Saddle River, NJ.

*** Prolific science fiction and fantasy novelist Brooklynite C.J. HENDERSON, author of 50 books, hundreds of short stories and numerous nonfiction articles and movie reviews, appeared in the dealers room at the recent Big Apple Comic Art and Science Fiction Con at NYC's Penn Plaza Center (www.cjhenderson.com). -- A front page photo of him appears in the Nov. 21st edition of the "Brooklyn Daily Eagle" taken by staff reporter Harold Egeln.

*** There was also a front page review by Egeln of the recent performance of the radio plays "WAR OF THE WORLDS" and "The Lost World" at the Brooklyn Performing Arts Center at Brooklyn College.

A NYC TIME-SPACE WINDOW INTO THE VISTAS & VISIONS OF THE DAWN OF THE SPACE AGE Recaptures Space-Faring Humankind's Childlike Spirit!!! During the holiday season from mid-November 2008 through the first weekend in January 2009 Bloomingdale's on Lexington Avenue (East 59th-60th Streets) featured retro-1950s Christmas window displays. One of them is a Christmas 1950s window with a Space Age theme, reflecting the dawn of the era in science fiction and space travel images, featuring spaceships, flying saucers, robots, space decor, Santa Claus in a rocket-sleigh, and images of "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet Songs and Music," Gort robots from the 1951 "The Day the Eath Stood Still" movie, a "Tommy Tomorrow" poster, and more, bringing alive NYC's space scene set in a fabulously marvelous Christmas in the 1950s. For images, click the "RAINBOW STAR-BRIDGE" link below:

"CO2 RISING" AUTHOR VOLK AT SECRET SCIENCE CLUB IN BROOKLYN On December 3 at the monthly free Secret Science Club public forum, held in Gowanus, NYC environmentalist Tyler Volk spoke on his new book "CO2 Rising: The World's Greatest Environmental Challenge." Volk is Science Director of Environmental Studies and Associate Professor of Biology at NYU, and author of two previous books, "Gaia's Body: Towards a Physiology of the Earth" (MIT Press, 2003) and "Metapatterns: Across Space, Time, and Mind," among others. [Check-out Secret Science Club link on our homepage.] ********************************************************