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   You've heard about the Man In the Moon and the Lady in the Moon. If you're into lunar observing then you know about the Cow Jumping Over the Moon and the Rabbit in the Moon, too. But have you ever heard about the Basketball Player In The Moon? First discovered by Ed Murray and published in ALPO's monthly "The Lunar Observer" and in NASA's Dr Tony Phillips November 13, 2008 issue of Spaceweather.com, the "basketball player" is a compilation of lunar features that resembles... well... a basketball player! How did its discovery come about? Just ask Ed. "Like many amateur astronomers, I guess I've always daydreamed just a little bit about possibly discovering a faint fuzzy that turns out to be a bright comet, but very quickly, I have to come down to Earth because living in suburban Philadelphia, with our weather and horrid light pollution, the chance of that happening are slim to none. So, I've had to be content with the memories of being able to see the solar eclipse from Hawaii, where I happened to see the Milky Way in all it's glory from the 9,000 ft level visitors center, the annular eclipse of 1994 in New York; seeing the shadow bands; not on a white sheet but freshly cut green grass, numerous Aurorae and everything else; until one night....
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Yes! Yes. That one grand night when one plus one makes two. And two suddenly makes sense! "Like many, I did have that National Geographic Map of The Moon but after numerous moves across the country and two college dorms, it, like many things, lay in tatters and eventually found its way to the great map room in the sky. So, you might understand how happy I was to find out that National Geographic had re-issued it and I could purchase another copy and so it remained opposite my bed for a few years; Until one night last year.... When I looked at it and saw the basketball player, and promptly forgot it. Saw it a second time and forgot it. Saw it a third time, early on May 12. 2008 and realized that maybe this is something I should check out...
And check it out he did. As a Dark Sky Advocate and once President of the Bucks-Mont. Astronomical Association, Ed double checked what he could see from his maps with what he could see against the sky and came to the same conclusion. It looks like a basketball player. Like all good observers, he turned in his findings to as many organizations and observing clubs as he could. Of course, Fritz Zwicky would have sure understood the response he got from the "professionals", but the rest of the world will be happy to know that the Basketball Player has been added to the roles of the 
We're very pleased to have Ed join us this year at Hidden Hollow as a guest speaker! Ed was born in Boston, lived in CT., Massachusetts and moved to Dallas in the summer of 1963. Lived in Louisiana and of course, Ohio and now reside in Pennsylvania. Educated in Political Science with a view toward elective office (only made it so far as being a successfully elected delegate to the Democratic National Convention 1984) but trained as a travel agent and Customer Service Rep. Did some work on the Draft Gore movement a couple of years ago and actually got on NPR's "All Things Considered". He's also also a Dark Sky Advocate and has been working to keep Cherry Springs Dark Sky Park free from these crazy electric company folk who want to put up Strobe topped Wind Turbines all around Cherry Springs! What a shame we had to capture him away from Black Forest to be with us this year... ;)