In memoriam: John Mosley
FFRF After-Life Member and Immortal John Mosley died Nov. 5, 2023. He left FFRF a generous bequest.
John had been interpreting the sky to family, friends and the public since he got his first telescope in 1956.
He earned a degree in astronomy from the University of Michigan in 1970. Upon graduation, he turned from research to public astronomy and, during his 35-year professional career, worked in two public planetariums: the historic Hansen Planetarium in Salt Lake City from 1970-1977 and the world-famous Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles from 1977-2006. He then retired to St. George, Utah.
John became an authority on the Star of Bethlehem — his first book was “The Christmas Star,” published in 1987. In the 1990s, John wrote four additional books on the sky: “The Ultimate Guide to the Sky” for children in 1997, “Stargazing for Beginners” also in 1997, “Stargazing with Binoculars and Telescopes” in 1998, and “Starry Night Companion” in 2000.
John was also in charge of Griffith Observatory’s educational activities, and he wrote and produced over 50 planetarium shows (and presented them live), developed museum exhibits, was responsible for the operation of the telescopes, and provided astronomy information to the public and the news media. He was interviewed over 100 times on local and national television and appeared in more than a dozen documentaries.
John was called on regularly by media to explain eclipses, discoveries in astronomy, and to be an authority in documentaries, and he has appeared on “CNN Headline News,” “Tom Snyder Show,” “Good Morning America,” “AM Los Angeles,” “Dan Rather Evening News,” “Today Show,” “Jim Lehrer News Hour,” as well as the local evening news countless times.
John led expeditions to South America and the Caribbean to watch eclipses and to see Halley’s Comet, taught astronomy at the college level and to teachers, and conducted weekend astronomy workshops for families on Palomar Mountain and elsewhere. He edited magazines and a professional journal, wrote a biweekly column on the sky that appeared in the Los Angeles Times for six years, and recorded a weekly Sky Report that was very popular for 26 years. He coordinated public star parties sponsored by Hansen Planetarium and Griffith Observatory for 35 years.
