Mark O'Connell didn't want to be Luke Skywalker, He wanted to be one of the mop-haired kids on the Star Wars toy commercials. And he would have done it had his parents had better pine furniture and a condo in California. Star Wars, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Superman didn't just change cinema – they made lasting highways into our childhoods, toy boxes and video stores like never before. In Watching Skies, O'Connell pilots a gilded X-Wing flight through that shared universe of bedroom remakes of Return of the Jedi, close encounters with Christopher Reeve, sticker album swaps, the trauma of losing an entire Stars Wars figure collection and honeymooning on Amity Island. From the author of Catching Bullets – Memoirs of a Bond Fan, Watching Skies is a timely hologram from all our memory systems. It is about how George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, a shark, two motherships, some gremlins, ghostbusters and a man of steel jumper a whole generation to hyperspace.

After the launch of Sputnik, thousands of ordinary Americans became "Moonwatchers," a network of citizen-scientists who helped professional astronomers by providing critical and otherwise unavailable information about the first satellites.

Bill Warren’s Keep Watching the Skies! was originally published in two volumes, in 1982 and 1986. It was then greatly expanded in what we called the 21st Century Edition, with new entries on several films and revisions and expansions of the commentary on every film. In addition to a detailed plot synopsis, full cast and credit listings, and an overview of the critical reception of each film, Warren delivers richly informative assessments of the films and a wealth of insights and anecdotes about their making. The book contains 273 photographs (many rare, 35 in color), has seven useful appendices, and concludes with an enormous index. This book is also available in hardcover format (ISBN 978-0-7864-4230-0).

It's a dangerous time for Daniel X-and when he's cast in an evil director's TV show, he must fight to stay alive. Daniel X thought he'd seen it all in his dangerous days of hunting outlaws-but there's no business like show business, and Number Five on his list of deadly targets is the most appalling criminal yet. An intergalactic reality television producer has orchestrated the extermination of millions, with a soundtrack and laugh track to accompany it. The evil entertainer's catching it all on film, and he's looking for a big-ticket draw. Who better to star than the Alien Hunter himself? Daniel finds himself cast in the lead role of a terrifying season premiere . . . of the gravest show on Earth. Can Daniel X stop this deranged outlaw-or will he find himself on the cutting room floor?

Aerial delights: A history of America as seen through the eyes of a bird-watcher John James Audubon arrived in America in 1803, when Thomas Jefferson was president, and lived long enough to see his friend Samuel Morse send a telegraphic message from his house in New York City in the 1840s. As a boy, Teddy Roosevelt learned taxidermy from a man who had sailed up the Missouri River with Audubon, and yet as president presided over America's entry into the twentieth century, in which our ability to destroy ourselves and the natural world was no longer metaphorical. Roosevelt, an avid birder, was born a hunter and died a conservationist. Today, forty-six million Americans are bird-watchers. The Life of the Skies is a genre-bending journey into the meaning of a pursuit born out of the tangled history of industrialization and nature longing. Jonathan Rosen set out on a quest not merely to see birds but to fathom their centrality—historical and literary, spiritual and scientific—to a culture torn between the desire both to conquer and to conserve. Rosen argues that bird-watching is nothing less than the real national pastime—indeed it is more than that, because the field of play is the earth itself. We are the players and the spectators, and the outcome—since bird and watcher are intimately connected—is literally a matter of life and death.

Starting with simple instructions on learning one's way around the night sky and progressing to more challenging concepts, this ingenious program takes readers to a deeper level of knowledge and understanding of the night sky. 70 illustrations & charts.

Improved technology is teaching us more about the weather all the time, and with new knowledge comes new concerns and confusion. Is global warming real? What is a NEXRAD Doppler? Meteorologist Paul Douglas provides the answers to all these questions and more, along with fascinating illustrations, photos, trivia, and graphics. Find out what a difference a degree makes; as well as information about El Ni�o and how to protect yourself against the worst that the weather can bring. From the distinctions between a weather warning, watch, and advisory to the definition of an F-5 tornado, all the essentials are clearly explained.