HOWARD L. COHEN is an emeritus professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Florida where he was on the faculty for over thirty-five years. He is an accomplished public speaker. His “down-to-earth” presentations use lively computer displays, which he has perfected through years of teaching at the University of Florida.

Fig. 1. Annular Eclipse of 1984 May 24, Greenville, NC. Annularity lasted seven seconds. Left to Right: Sally Hoffman, Karla Rahman, Howard Cohen, Glenn Schneider, Don McNeil. (Photo courtesy G. Schneider). See footnote.*

Professor Cohen became engrossed with astronomy as an amateur fifty years ago when he was growing up in New York. He was in the first graduation class of The Wheatley School in Old Westbury, New York and had the honor of having the highest combined science/math average in his graduating class (1958). Here he organized his first astronomy club. (Others would come later.) He subsequently studied astronomy, physics and math at the University of Michigan where he received his B.S. degree (1962). Graduate work in astronomy at Indiana University led to Masters and Ph.D. degrees (1964, 1968).

However, Dr. Cohen also continued his interest in communicating his excitement of the heavens to others. He helped organize a small, local (Gainesville) amateur group in the 1970s (The Florida Astronomical Society) and then later (1987) became a founding member of the Alachua Astronomy Club, Inc. (AAC). He has served as newsletter editor, program chair, web master and vice president of the AAC. He currently serves on the AAC's executive board.

Largely through Dr. Cohen's efforts, the AAC was able develop a design for a large, astronomical architectural feature to decorate the lobby of Eastern Federal's new (1999) Royal Park Stadium 16 Theater in Gainesville, Florida. He also designed and wrote (with the help of AAC member Pam Mydock), the dedication plaque that hangs in the theater lobby. In addition, he was instrumental in developing (1999–2003) the Gainesville Solar Walk, a four billion to one scale model of the Solar System (0.9 mile from Sun to Pluto) and one of Gainesville's most significant public art works.

As a teacher Professor Cohen has taught more than 15,000 students basic astronomy and science. He has also helped pioneer the use of multimedia for teaching astronomy at the University of Florida. Under a NASA grant during the 1990s Dr. Cohen prepared and taught workshops in Florida schools to introduce teachers to the basics of image processing.

For a while in the 1960's he was a visiting astronomer at Lowell Observatory doing photometric work on the Sun and binary stars. He was also active in their public outreach programs. A favorite activity was introducing visitors to Lowell's unique history and facilities.

*The intent of the 1984 annular eclipse expedition was to improve our knowledge about the Sun's diameter. The eclipse was photographed with a Celestron 5 telescope fitted with a full aperture density 5 chromium filter coupled to an Ariflex 35mm movie camera. A 6-1/2 in. 1/8-wave optical flat coelistat fed light into the telescope so the telescope could remain fixed. The movie camera was run at 64 frames per second. Digital time code (from a WWVB-receiver in front of coelistat) was optically encoded on each frame for an absolute time reference.

Research interests have spanned a variety of projects including eclipsing binaries and star clusters, lunar and asteroid occultations, eclipses, detection of asteroids and comets, planetarium history and design, calendars and eclipses (see Fig. 1). His work on binary stars at Indiana University produced some of the best determined effective temperatures for very hot (early type B) stars. In addition, he was among the first astronomers to do vigorous and complete data reduction and analysis of spectroscopic-eclipsing binary stars by computers. He also produced elaborate computer programs for radial velocity reductions.

At Florida he received Graduate Research Awards in 1970 and 1980. During the 1980s Dr. Cohen was first to test a prototype of a new Air Force ground-based electro-optical deep-space surveillance system (GEODSS) for the detection of asteroids and comets, a system now used in the search for Near Earth Objects (NEOs).

During the 1970s and 1980s he nearly single-handily promoted the concept of a planetarium for Gainesville. In addition, he was intimately involved helping architecture and history students develop master theses on planetarium design and history. One such thesis by C.F. Gronauer (The Planetarium, its History, Functions and Architecture: With Applications for a Proposed Addition to the Florida State Museum, 1978) was, at the time of completion, among the largest masters theses produced at the University of Florida and contained the largest bibliography of planetariums in the world.

During the late 1980s Dr. Cohen was also a technical consultant, speaker and regional sales manager for Meade Instruments, Inc., a world leader in the design and manufacture of telescopes and accessories for amateur astronomers. He also arranged and presented dozens of Meade telescope training workshops for store personnel and wrote the initial draft of their large, late 1980s accessory catalog.

DR. COHEN CURRENTLY SPENDS TIME PLANNING, ORGANIZING AND ESCORTING UNIQUE TOURS with his wife Marian, a travel specialist with Continental Capers Travel Center in Gainesville, Florida. These "Voyages of Discovery Tours" are centered on astronomical themes. He has helped lead successful tours to the Caribbean, Africa, Australia, Italy and Greece, and the South Pacific Ocean for the unusual 2005 Hybrid solar eclipse. In the fall of 2005 he helped lead a very successful, unique and very special astronomy, archaeology and geology tour of Arizona. Most recently he and his wife led a fascinating tour to Egypt to observe the 2006 March 29 total eclipse from Egypt that included an exciting Nile Cruise Tour.

(See Gainesville Sun article about these unique tours.)

Professor Cohen is currently planning additional trips including a tour to China in 2009 to visit this fascinating country and to view the July 22, 2009 total eclipse of the Sun.

Dr. Cohen is a member of the American Astronomical Society, the Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the International Planetarium Society, the International Dark Sky Association, and Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society.

Dr. Cohen also designs T-shirts for his tours!