About the author

Since earning a degree in astronomy from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1960, O. Richard Norton has held directorial positions at the Morrison Planetarium, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, the Max C. Fleischmann Planetarium, University of Nevada, Reno, and the Grace H. Flandrau Planetarium and Science Center, University of Arizona, Tucson. He has worked as an optical engineer on the design of optical telescopes at the Tinsley Laboratories, Berkeley, California, and the hemispheric projection system for the Desert Research Institute, University of Nevada, the forerunner of the modern Imax system.

In 1977 he founded Science Graphics, a company producing science teaching slides in astronomy, space science, meteorites, geology, paleontology and the history of astronomy, used in the science teaching curricula of over 3,000 colleges and universities in the United States and further afield.

His interest in meteoritics extends from his work with Frederick C. Leonard, a renowned early meteoriticist at UCLA. Through the years he has worked to promote the public understanding of science and especially the growing field of meteoritics. He is the author of the best-selling book Rocks From Space (1994) and is currently Contributing Editor of the new popular journal Meteorite.