Recent Work
Bits and pieces of interesting pretties I've picked up along the way.
Recent Blog Posts
October 26, 2018 |
Distant Suns for iOS+10 Years
Ten years ago, this week, I got this message from Apple: Dear Mike Smithwick, The status for the following...
September 25, 2018 |
Where is the Tesla Tonight, Sept. 26?
Where is Elon’s Tesla tonight? Heading out of Scorpius towards Sagittarius.
July 25, 2018 |
“Welcome to my planetarium!” – Distant Suns (+VR) Released
Ever wanted to travel through space? Me too. Growing up in the 60s, it was hard to ignore the moon program. If...
April 3, 2018 |
Creating addictive… anything, from catchy songs to software
I am always looking for tips on how to make DS a package people may want to use even if there is no astronomical...
November 13, 2017 |
50 years ago…
Fifty years ago this month of November, the Saturn V moon rocket, took to its wings for the very first time....
September 28, 2017 |
Distant Suns and iOS 11
I’ve received a couple of reports that Distant Suns-Max and iOS 11 don’t play well together, and...
August 28, 2017 |
The “Great American Eclipse” lived up to it’s name
When I was asked last week about how many eclipses I’ve seen, I must respond define ‘seen’. Ultimately, I’ll...
May 19, 2017 |
Distant Suns T+30 years and counting
Thirty years ago, last April, a new software application for the Commodore Amiga went on sale. Named Galileo, it...
January 20, 2017 |
God Speed Gene Cernan
The past year has seen the passings of three of my childhood “heros,” two of which were moonwalkers and the third...
December 12, 2016 |
Godspeed John Glenn
The term “hero” has been one of the most overused and misused words of the past couple of decades. (“diversity”...
September 4, 2016 |
Yet more weird crap in Mike’s place
Back before Apollo 15 I met someone who had a friend at the space center in Houston. I wrote him, Ron was his...
May 7, 2016 |
If you want an Apollo Command Module, just build one…
Like many of space-nerds in training who grew up in the 60’s, we longed to have our own Apollo spacecraft or...
May 5, 2016 |
Freedom 7 + 55 years
As I am writing this, it is the 55th anniversary of the launch of the Mercury Spacecraft, Freedom 7, our first...
March 14, 2016 |
Ed Mitchell and Apollo 14
The passing of Apollo 14 astronaut, Ed Mitchell, recently marks in a way, “the beginning of the end” of the...
November 26, 2015 |
Weird crap in Mike’s place: Gemini 5 flight plan
In the arena of space collecting there are many levels to handle the many different interests and bank accounts....
