An ardent traveler, Gary has hosted tours to observe comets and eclipses and has taken urban students to the Southwest to view the heavens from some of the darkest regions in the US. He and his pupils volunteered at the Chaco Observatory in Chaco Culture National Historical Park near Nageezi, NM between 1999 and 2001. More recently, Gary has been a part of the Night Sky Team at Bryce Canyon National Park, while locally his StarWatch Team of student observers and volunteers continue to make the heavens accessible to urban audiences across eastern Pennsylvania.

Gary Becker’s 53-year interest in astronomy and his career as an educator have provided him with a natural avenue for writing. He has authored the book that his Moravian astronomy students use, founded the website www.astronomy.org as an educational outreach for his pupils and the public, and has for the past 15 years been writing a homespun, but informative weekly column called StarWatch which is syndicated and appears in 25 newspapers nationwide.