Kanipe, Jeff 1953–

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Kanipe, Jeff 1953–

PERSONAL: Born 1953.

ADDRESSES: Home—MD. Agent—Regula Noetzli Literary Agency, 2344 County, Rte. 83, Pine Plains, NY 12567. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. Former editor for Astronomy and StarDate; STAR.com, contributing columnist.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(With others) Advanced Skywatching: The Backyard Astronomer's Guide to Starhopping and Exploring the Universe, Time-Life Books (New York, NY), 1997, 2nd edition published as Backyard Astronomy, Nature Company/Time-Life Books (New York, NY), 1999.

A Skywatcher's Year, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

(With others) Astronomy: The Definitive Guide, Barnes & Noble Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Chasing Hubble's Shadows: The Search for Galaxies at the Edge of Time, Hill & Wang (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: Jeff Kanipe is an independent science journalist whose areas of specialty include astronomy, cosmology, and planetary science. His books include A Skywatcher's Year, a "tour of the night sky," as a reviewer for Sky & Telescope described it, and the 2006 title, Chasing Hubble's Shadows: The Search for Galaxies at the Edge of Time, "an account of astronomers' quest for the first galaxies to form in the universe," as Kanipe explained on his home page.

Chasing Hubble's Shadows earned critical praise from many quarters. Jeff Foust, writing in Space Review online found Kanipe's book "important in translating the cutting-edge research of astronomers into a form that helps the public understand the fundamental questions … scientists are trying to answer." A critic for Universe Today online noted: "Kanipe includes pleasant, descriptive prose together with very particular, specialized scientific concepts." A contributor for the online Science a Go Go added more praise, observing that the book is "perfect for either the cosmologist or general reader." In a similar vein, a reviewer for Publishers Weekly commended the author's "breathless writing [which] conveys his own excitement over the … new advances in astronomy." A Kirkus Reviews critic found the book "great stuff for astronomy buffs," while Gilbert Taylor, writing in Booklist, concluded, "General readers will be as excited by the discovery as cosmologists."

Kanipe told CA: "I wrote my first science articles for my astronomy club newsletter when I was seventeen years old. At the time I was greatly inspired by a book by Martin Gardner called Relativity for the Million. It's still a great book and a fine example of science writing at its best.

"What I hope my writing conveys is a sense of wonder at what we too often take for granted: our existence in this marvelous universe."