Timothy Ferris, America’s writer laureate of astronomy invites millions of viewers to enjoy the wonders of the night sky in a spectacular HDTV special on PBS
Stargazing is the subject of ‘Seeing in the Dark,’ a 60-minute, state-of-the-art, high-definition (HDTV) documentary by Timothy Ferris that premieres Sept. 19, at 8 p.m. on KNME TV PBS. The film, Ferris’ third, is based on his book, Seeing in the Dark (2002), named by The New York Times as one of the ten best books of the year.
“Seeing in the Dark is meant to alter, inspire and illuminate the lives of millions,” said Ferris. “It introduces viewers to the rewards of first-person, hands-on astronomy — from kids learning the constellations to amateur astronomers doing professional-grade research in discovering planets and exploding stars. I hope it will encourage many viewers to make stargazing part of their lives, and a few to get into serious amateur astronomy.”
To capture the beauty and wonder of the night sky, Ferris assembled a worldclass team including Hollywood cinematographer Francis Kenny, veteran BBC natural history director Nigel Ashcroft, the celebrated astronomical special-effects artist Don Davis, sound designer Kate Hopkins (Planet Earth), and three-time Academy Award® winner Walter Murch, who did the digital surround-sound mix.
The film features memorable deep-space images by some of the world’s most respected astrophotographers, among them Robert Gendler, Jack Newton and Akira Fujii, and an original musical score by Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher of Dire Straits fame.
Like the book, the film is in part a personal account of Ferris’ life-long devotion to stargazing, beginning with his introduction to the night sky as teenager in Florida in the ‘50s.
“Back then we had big skies and small telescopes,” Ferris says in the film. “We couldn’t observe much beyond the Moon, the planets, and a few bright star clusters, but we had a lot of fun, and we came to cherish the telescope as an instrument of deliverance, the keys to a vast and spectacular kingdom.”
The film interweaves themes of music, the stars, and the stark contrast between the brief span of human lifetimes and the vastness of the cosmos, where a backyard stargazer equipped with nothing more than binoculars can see light older than the human species. Ferris describes it as “in part an ongoing dialog, down through the generations, about discovering the beauty of nature of the largest scale and learning more about our place in it all.”
Media Contact: Gail Rubin, (505) 265-7215; e-mail: grpr@flash.net