About the Books
Time for Patriots: The 21st Century Confronts Bunker Hill And After!
“Time for Patriots is a delightful adventure with marvelously crafted characters so realistic I could swear I knew them.”
Guillermo Alfonso Calvo Mahé, Professor of English and Political Science, International Relations Directorate, Universidad Autònoma de Manizales.
“Time for Patriots is a fascinating look into a world changed by knowledge from the future.”
Christopher Nuttall, Producer and Managing Editor of Changing the Times, the online Alternate History magazine. (www.changingthetimes.net)
“Time for Patriots is a splendid first novel by an author — already a serious scientist — who has the potential to be a most formidable sci-fi author. It is a highly imaginative story which reveals both a grasp of science and of history.”
Bernard J. Sussman, lawyer & librarian
View the Press Release for Time for Patriots
Useful Star Names: With Nebulas and other Celestial Features
The following review appears in The Planetarian, the journal of the International Planetarium Society, December 2011, Vol. 40, No. 4, pages 62-63, written by the book review editor, April Whitt, of the Fernbank Planetarium in Atlanta, GA:
Useful Star Names; With Nebulas and other Celestial Features
Thomas Wm. Hamilton, Strategic Book Group, Durham, Connecticut, 2011, ISBN 978-1-61204-614-3
I wanted to let you know about this volume with the descriptive title in time for stocking your gift shops and book stores for the new year. It is, indeed, full of useful star names. And not just the usual Greek letters or catalog numbers, either.
The author introduces the work as derived from “my experience of many years in the planetarium field.” Each of us has pointed out stars and constellations on the dome, in the night sky, or on a star map. We have all told stories of gods and heroes. Some of us have struggled with unfamiliar pronunciations, wondered where a particular story came from, or related the difference between Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali. A few have even won “constellation shoot-out” contests with that.
The book is divided into four sections. An alphabetical listing of the 88 constellations and the meanings of their names is first. Second is a list of stars, nebulae and galaxies by constellation, with the accepted scientific designations for the named ones. This is the really useful section: a concise source for catalog listing, spectral class, distance in lightyears, R.A. and Dec., and apparent magnitude.
Many of the Chinese names were new to me, and a delight to add to the night sky knowledge (although I will need help with pronunciation).
An alphabetical listing of all names, the original language of each, and English translation and pronunciation is third. The last section lists entries from various catalogs cross listed to constellations.
Recommend this book to your local astronomy club. Share it with a telescope user-beginner. Purchase a copy for your planetarium library. It really is full of useful star names, and other good information.
View the Press Release for Useful Star Names.
Our Neighbor Stars: Including Brown Dwarfs
The sky’s the limit in the fascinating book Our Neighbor Stars: Including Brown Dwarfs. The book presents all known information on the 100 stars nearest Earth, as well as the brown dwarfs within the range covered by these stars.
Learn where (and whether) the stars are visible in the sky, who discovered them and how they were discovered. Read all about the stars’ sizes, colors, presence of any planets, and the constellations where the stars are located.
All the information is indexed, so particular types of stars can be easily found.
View the Press Release for Our Neighborhood Stars
About the Author
Thomas Wm. Hamilton knew he wanted to be a writer since he was young. “When I was 11 years old and I didn’t like the way Mark Twain ended Tom Sawyer Abroad, I decided to write my own ending.”
Born in San Francisco, the author grew up in New York and New Hampshire. He is a retired astronomer who taught in college for 32 years, worked in several planetariums, and worked on the Apollo Project. In 2009 the International Astronomical Union recognized his contrbutions to the field of astronomy by naming asteroid 4897 Tomhamilton. In 2010 the International Planetarium Society at its conference held in Alexandria, Egypt, designated him as a Fellow of the Society.
Thomas Wm. Hamilton lives on Staten Island, New York, and is working on his next book which is an anthology featuring his science fiction stories.
Hamilton Planetarium Scholarship Fund, Inc