The Hiking Astronomer

Writing science-fiction novels has guided my life since 2004, when I was 11 years old. I like to call the first three books I wrote from 2004 – 2012 my “video game” books, where I was writing to have fun and exercise my creativity, as kids and early teens do. But my current series, Recovery (2013-present), is the story I have to tell.

I graduated from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2016 with a creative writing English major and a minor in Mathematics, and have intensive background in physics, general relativity, and cosmology. I completed 1.5 years of grad school studying orbital mechanics and space law and policy–but ultimately chose not to complete the program as life pushed me in a different direction.

My books led me down a path of science blogging and educational video interviews on YouTube, and in 2018, evolved into a program I called Sidewalk Science Center (SSC) while I was living in Savannah, Georgia.

SSC ultimately drew all the focus I could spare outside writing my novels, but for the first six years developing it, I held more jobs than I can fit on two hands, which included Savannah’s original River Street Sweets, an educator at the Savannah Children’s Museum, then I moved to Florida and became a math tutor for older elementary and middle school students, a STEM educator at a learning center, a museum educator & planetarium director, and a middle and high school science teacher. Then, as I was finally breaking free of needing to hold a “traditional” job, I slid out of teaching to be an on-and-off substitute before living on the road full-time.

May 2024 was the moment of critical mass that catalyzed this shift. I left full-time high school teaching and put all the weight into SSC. At the same time, I went on my very first solo road trip, 6,000 miles from Florida to Arizona, traveling AZ to explore, host sidewalk astronomy in a few towns and dark sky locations, and reconnect with my best friends from college. Combined with the previous year’s trip to Crater Lake in Oregon to observe October 2023’s Annular Solar Eclipse from the rim of the volcano, and being hired to bring telescopes to Batesville, Indiana for April 2024’s Total Solar Eclipse, I was unwittingly on the path to freelancing as a traveling astronomer.

Another trip across Utah in August 2024 with a documentary videographer I met in Page, Arizona fully ignited the wanderlust that had been crackling under my skin for years, and I knew I needed to leave Florida once and for all.

An invitation to speak at a series of six conferences in Idaho during June 2025 was the answer, and fully pushed me into the Hiking Astronomer persona. I bought a camera and a drone, left Florida in May 2025, and have been on the road ever since, first living out of my little Kia Soul and tent camping everywhere I went, then buying a small van and building it out for full-time life on the road, giving me freedom to explore, host sidewalk astronomy, and write my science-fiction novels all around the country.

Florida was never home. I lived there so long mostly because I got stuck during COVID and the cost of living skyrocketed, putting me well below any financial comfort. Even so, apartments and houses make me restless. With all I do, I’m never home, so rent was a waste of money. Plus, I need my mountains, my snow, my moody weather. It comes with its own unique set of challenges, but buying the van has given me more stability, more adventure, and more personal peace. And most importantly, this life creates a series of endless stories to share with the tens-of-thousands of people I meet at my telescope on the sidewalk every year.

My largest goal? Take a telescope to the Moon and look back at the Earth.

Check my tour dates; maybe we’ll meet in more than one city…

This world is beautiful.

Find my books here and my photography store here. Or, hire me for a night under the stars.