Is the story of an ordinary man who dug up the rainbow’s end and discovered something far more precious than gold , and that was Wisdom. But nobody believed him – after all they could see he wasn’t a genius. So, when he was very old he wrote down how Wisdom works in the hope that one day all humans could share the recipe. He was fearful that without such wisdom they might well destroy themselves along with much of the natural world which had nurtured them.

In writing, his plan , my plan, was to give a step-by-step account of the journey Illustrating that dauntless curiosity had been the secret, not genius of any kind. And luck of course. He had been one of the tiny crew of the Hubble Space Telescope and so had stumbled upon mysteries which wouldn’t ever let his imagination rest. And that is how eventually he found his rainbow’s end – when he was trying to find something quite else – Hidden Galaxies. What he unearthed enabled him, and perhaps all of us who follow him, to think dozens of times better than we ever could before. I hope readers will find Explorer both an exciting adventure story and a persuasive revelation. That is certainly how the journey felt to the author. It is crafted in sixty very short episodes– entitled as follows:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE 2024 (1 kiloword)

1 EXPLORER 1968 (930 words)

2 OVERNIGHT FAME – BUT…..1969 (11 k-words)

The longest essay, included to show what astronomical observing

is really like. It’s the discovery of the Crab Pulsar and the evidence that there is a new form of matter in the Cosmos, one teaspoon of which weighs as much as 200,000 ocean liners . But there’s skulduggery afoot.

3 LOST AMONG THE STARS (1969) (1 kw)

4 A REALLY MAD IDEA 1969 (1.7 kw) Are most

Galaxies hidden underneath our sky?

5 HOW FAR AWAY ARE QUASARS? 1972 (2.8 kw) Battling with killer hornets.

6 AROUSING THE BLOOD. 1973 (2.3 kw)

How to design far better telescopes.

7 A RARE MOMENT OF ECSTASY 1975 (1.6 kw)

8 PROJECT TITANIC 1977 (1.1 kw)

9 INTO SPACE 1977 (1 kw)

Beginning to plan The Space Telescope (Hubble).

10 A FALTERING START 1977 ( 2.0 kw)

The rows start. They have to.

11 THE INTERNET INVENTS ITSELF 1979 (1.2 kw)

12 THE EXPLORER IN THE LIBRARY 1978 (1.3 kw)

13 TREASURE CHEST 1979 (700 w)

How the gems of Cosmic discovery could all be shared.

14 THE GRAND CHALLENGE 1980 (800 w)

How were the biggest scientific discoveries actually made?

15 GHOSTS IN SPACE 1980 (600 w). You can’t see them

but they must be there. Or are they?

16 THE SECRET OF BIRD FLIGHT 1980 (1.6 kw) . How can tiny birds cross oceans?

17 TILTING THE UNIVERSE 1982 ( 1.8 kw) What it really looks like. They’d all got it wrong! Surely not?

18 HIDDEN GALAXIES IN THE SEWER 1983 (1.3kw)

19 BIRDS ACROSS THE OCEAN 1985. (900 w)

20 HITCHHIKING TO THE STARS. 1988 (800 w)

21 EINSTEIN AND ME 1987. (1.6 kw)

An inspiring but troubled relationship. He was a thief.

22 THE FIRST “CROUCHING GIANT” 1987 (700w) Beaten to the Pole. But what a wonderful surprise too.

23 WHY WEAKLINGS FAIL 1980’s. (1.9 kw)

24 HIDDEN BY SMOKE 1990 (9.2 kw)

While observing at The Cape wisdom leaks down from the sky.

25 THE BIG FIX. 1990 (1.3 kw)

Helping to mend the Space Telescope. Insight in a glider.

26 STRUCK DUMB 1993. (2.4 kw) The Universe wasn’t meant to look like this! What’s going on?

27 IMAGING QUASARS 1994 (1.5 kw) Crown Jewels.

28 HIDDEN GALAXIES AND SPECTRAL GHOSTS

1994 (1.8 kw)

29 OUT OF FAILURE 1992. (1.4 kw) Never give up.

30 FEELING IN THE DARK 1992 (2.4kw)

31 OIL TANKER DISASTER & IGNORANCE OF

THE BRITISH ELITE 1996 (4.2 kw) What happens when we cannot think straight.

32 SETTING SAIL 1997 (500 w)

To explore the universe for Invisible galaxies.

33 THE SHARPEST EYE 1998 (3.4 kw) Designing a new camera for the Space Telescope.

34 CONFLICT AND CONTROVERSY. 1998 (1.5 kw)

35 HORRORS OF THE DEEP 2000. (1.1 kw)

36 ARECIBO FOLLIES 2000 (1.1 kw) Mad Big Telescope Disease.

37 THE SWEETEST SPOT (2002) (600 w)

38 HUMAN THERMODYNAMICS 2004 (2.7 kw)

39 RECYCLABLE OIL & PTEROSAUR WINGS 2000

(700w) How we could save the planet

40 EUREKA 2004 (1.4 kw) Applying Information

Theory to explore the Cosmos; Revelations.

41 BURNING WITCHES 2004 (1.4 kw)

42 UNDERMINING THE HIGH PRIESTS 2005 (1.1 kw)

43 THE AUSTRALIAN FIASCO 2005 (1.4 kw)

44 BETTING ON THE TRUTH. 2004 (900 w)

45 FIRST DARK GALAXY 2008. (1.1 kw)

46 THE BIG SHOOT- OUT IN CARDIFF. 2007 (1.5 kw) Spectacular rows.

47 GREAT SECRETS BEGIN TO EMERGE 2007

(1.8kw) Intimations of a vast discovery.

48 HARD TO BELIEVE 2008 (3.4 kw) But here it is.

49 CRIMINALS IN ASTRONOMY 2008 (2.6 kw)

All over the place

50 LAST MISSION TO HUBBLE & THE BIG PRIZE

2009 (2.0 kw)

51 DETECTIVE’S EQUATION 2010 (2.3 kw)

How we can ALL think far better. We must!

52 OCKHAM’S RAZOR – THE BASIS OF WISDOM 2011 (2.5kw)

53 FATAL MISTAKES. 2013 (1.8 kw) How wrong the human race can sometimes be. We’ve got to admit it.

54 ANIMAL WISDOM 2014. (2.6 kw)

55 WAS THERE A BIG BANG? 2014 ( 1 kw)

56 GALAXIES – HIDDEN NO MORE. 2017 (0.7 kw)

57 ‘CATEGORICAL INFERENCE’ ,THE BEATING

HEART OF THINKING. 2018. ( 3.4 kw)

58 THE SECRET OF HUMAN SUCCESS 2018 (1.8 kw)

59 ROTTEN REASONING 2018. (4.2 kw)

60 MY OWN BLUNDERS. 2024 (1.5 kw)

61 THINKING AND PROGRESS 2024 (3.9 kw)

62 LAST WORDS 2024 (3.4 kw)

63 SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 2024 (600w)

P S. For economic reasons all the illustrations in the book version are in black-and-white, but colour versions, sometimes more informative, can be found on our website mjdisney.org under the Category ‘Astronomy’ in the Post entitled “Images for ‘Explorer’ ” (2024).

Above is the NASA/ ESA Hubble Space Telescope of which I was a member of the crew from 1977 to 2010. And it’s still up there taking pictures with our WFC-3 camera in 2024. Whqt a priviledge and a stimulant for an explorer like me.