I’m very excited to announce the advent of SETIcon, a convention about astronomy, SETI, and Star Trek!
Yeah, you read that right. SETIcon guests will include many astronomers from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, including David Morrison, Seth Shostak, Frank Drake, and Jill Tarter. Other astronomers will include my friends Alex Filippenko, Debra Fischer, and Kevin Grazier, and Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweikart.
Oh! And me. I’ll be there, too.
But besides astronomers and astronomy and hardcore science talks, there will also be several actors from the scifi genre there, including John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox from Enterprise; I met him at Dragon*Con and he is smart, funny, and just a generally nice guy) and Tim Russ (Tuvok from Voyager, who is an amateur astronomer). More guests have been invited, and I’m hoping to have one or two cool announcements concerning them as they confirm.
There will be panels, talks (I’ll most likely give my Death from the Skies! talk) and I just bet Kevin and I will do one of our famous panels where we nitpick movies and each other. Mostly each other. That’s a lot of fun.
SETIcon will be August 13 – 15 in Santa Clara, California. Unbelievably, tickets are only $20 a day or $35 for the weekend. That’s really cheap for something like this! Of course, more expensive tickets get you more stuff, so explore your options. I’m really looking forward to it. It’ll be fun, and I hope to see lots of BABloggees there.
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:10 pm
I seriously wish I was able to attend this but alas. Stuff like this needs to happen with more frequency in my little corner of Canada.
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Why California? I was just out there–it’s a long drive.
Why not somewhere closer to the center of the USA, like Denver, Kansas City, or even Albuquerque (where a huge number of SF writers and real scientists and astronomers live nearby, as do I)?
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:39 pm
John Billingsley is one of my fav actors. It drips smartness or sometime evilness out of his role characters – I dunno how he does that, but I sit up and take notice every time. It’s a treat!
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:55 pm
I am so friggin there!
March 3rd, 2010 at 4:07 pm
A set icon?
March 3rd, 2010 at 4:42 pm
I already have my SETIcon ticket, airplane and hotel reservation… I am traveling from Mexico City and I just can’t wait!!!
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Is there anyway to get me a job with SETI.
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:14 pm
I’d totally go if I didn’t live in Europe, this event sounds incredibly awesome.
March 3rd, 2010 at 6:52 pm
I had just begun lamenting that I can’t afford to go to TAM. Luckily, this is much more reasonable, and right near me as well! Hopefully I’m not doing anything else that weekend.
March 3rd, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Wait — Tim Russ is an amateur astronomer, or Tuvok is an amateur astronomer?
March 4th, 2010 at 2:21 am
Tim russ is the amateur astronomer
http://365daysofastronomy.org/2009/09/15/september-15th-interview-with-star-treks-tim-russ/
March 4th, 2010 at 3:47 am
I’ll be there!! ^__^ I’m really looking forward to this, I’ve been donating artwork to the convention.
If someone leaps up and down in front of you acting like a rabid fan-boy and asking you to sign a copy of death from the skies, it might possibly be me.
March 4th, 2010 at 8:02 am
California?! I shoudl think that Daytona beach would make a much better setting. I’m not saying that because I live in the Daytona Beach area and it would make it easier to get to. Honest!
March 4th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Can’t. Frakking. Wait.
March 12th, 2010 at 9:57 am
[...] Where astronomy and Trek collide: SETIcon! (blogs.discovermagazine.com) [...]
August 21st, 2010 at 9:23 pm
First, many thanks to the Speaker and Organizer of the SETIcon 2010. It was a great time to be there and meet all the women and man (and other) that work so hard to bring science to the public and find ways to proof that we are not alone in the universe.
An autotranslated version to english is available here:
Overview about the Congress from our perspective:
http://www.siliconvalleyblog.de/en/blog/2010/08/17/seticon-2010-suche-nach-ausserirdischen-leben-bei-yahoo/
How we can communicate with ET
http://www.siliconvalleyblog.de/en/blog/2010/08/18/seticon-2010-teil-2-im-gesprach-mit-et/
The Open Source Projekt SETIquest:
http://www.siliconvalleyblog.de/en/blog/2010/08/19/seticon-2010-teil-3-setiquest-menschen-wie-du-und-ich-suchen-mit/
Diskussion about the possibility and problem for a manned Mars Mission:
http://www.siliconvalleyblog.de/en/blog/2010/08/20/seticon-2010-teil-4-wo-bitte-geht-es-hier-zum-mars/
Hopefully there will be an SETIcon 2011. It will be great to be there again and meet all the human beings again.
regards
Frank