User:John A. Blackwell

The account of this former contributor was not re-activated after the server upgrade of March 2022.

I was born in 1965 in Maracaibo, Venezuela to U.S. citizen parents. My father's occupation allowed me to live in many parts of the world including the USA, England, Venezuela, and Barbados. I enjoy world travel and find that it is essential in order to gain a better understanding of the human condition. Professionally, I am an educator and astronomer. I teach at a private, boarding, high school (Phillips Exeter Academy) in New Hampshire, USA, in the fields of astronomy and physics. I am also their observatory director. My pedagogy centers on research based science education, and I am a strong advocate of that method for the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. As an astronomer (Masters of Astronomy, James Cook University, NSW, Australia), my interests are in variable stars, specifically cataclysmic variables. My interests and hobbies are many: Reading; cooking; music listening; playing the bodhran, guitar and didgeridoo; writing poetry; aviation; astrophotography; HO trains; Olympic recurve archery.