Astronomical Trips Prior to 2001

1980 - Harry Bayley Observatory, the only astronomical observatory in the West Indies - Barbados

1981 - I learned how to drive in the desert at night guided by the stars - United Arab Emirates

1982 - Sydney Observatory (built in 1858) - Sydney, Australia

1985 - I cruised 14 days through the Caribbean Sea to observe Comet Halley with Dr. Mark Chartrand (Director of the
National Space Institute) and Dr. Edward Brooks (world authority on eclipses). We had daily lectures and panel
discussions on Comet Halley on board the ship.

1986 - Hayden Planetarium (built in 1935) - New York
         - NASA's Kennedy Space Center - Cape Canaveral, Florida (January)
         - NASA's Johnson Space Center - Houston, Texas (June)
         - I was introduced to Dr. Sally Ride (first American woman in space in 1983) during the 22nd SPWLA Logging
           Symposium - Houston, Texas

1989 - I attended Planetfest'89 during Voyager 2's encounter with Neptune, when I had the privilege to meet Carl Sagan
and Isaac Asimov, co-founders of The Planetary Society - Pasadena, California

1993 - Gornergrat Observatory - Switzerland

1994 - Mt. Evans Observatory (at the time, the highest ground based observatory in the world at 4,305 meters) - Colorado
         - NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) - Boulder, Colorado
         - New York Amateur Astronomers Association (I observed an enormous solar prominence with H-alpha filter)
         - STScI (Space Telescope Science Institute) - Baltimore, Maryland
         - Adler Planetarium (first in the world, built in 1930) - Chicago
         - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics - Cambridge, Mass.

1996 - RTMC (Riverside Telescope Makers Conference) - California
         - 188th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society - Madison, Wisconsin
         - Big Bear Solar Observatory - California
         - I visited The Planetary Society Headquarters - Pasadena, California

1997 - MIT Center for Space Research - Cambridge, Mass.
- I observed Comet Hale-Bopp from the Bahamas and USA

1998 - 164th Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science during its 150th anniversary,
with the opening speech by President Bill Clinton - Philadelphia
- I had the famous Martian meteorite ALH84001 in my hands during a lecture by NASA

2000 - I observed Comet C/1999 S4 (LINEAR) from Tunisia and Egypt and Comet 2P/Encke from Lebanon and Syria
         - Lee Observatory at the American University of Beirut - Lebanon (founded in 1874)
         - Ksara Observatory - Ksara, Lebanon (founded by the Jesuits in 1904)
         - I visited the Jordanian Astronomical Society - Amman, Jordan

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