Ken Croswell is an astronomer and author living in Berkeley, California. His first degree mixed science and wider interests, majoring in physics and minoring in English literature. He also got a PhD in astronomy from Harvard University for studying the Milky Way's halo. He is primarily known as a writer on astronomy and space topics. He has written regularly the New Scientist, New York Times and various magazines in the popular science press. He is also the author of six books on astronomy, including The Alchemy of the Heavens and Planet Quest. [More at Wikipedia]