David John Eicher (born August 7, 1961) is an American editor, writer, and popularizer of astronomy and space. He has been editor-in-chief ofAstronomy magazine since 2002. He is author, coauthor, or editor of 23 books on science and American history and is known for having founded a magazine on astronomical observing,Deep Sky Monthly, when he was a 15-year-old high school student.[1]
Eicher is also a historian, having researched and written extensively about theAmerican Civil War.
Eicher began his career at AstroMedia Corp., the magazine's publisher, in September 1982 as assistant editor ofAstronomy Magazine and editor ofDeep Sky.[2] In 1985, Kalmbach Publishing Co.,[3] the Milwaukee publisher ofModel Railroader,Trains, and other titles, bought AstroMedia Corp. Eicher's role in the magazine deepened as he worked on many science stories as well as observing pieces and by decade's end, the company moved toWaukesha, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee, and by that time Eicher was promoted to associate editor.[4]
He published his first books,The Universe from Your Backyard (a compilation of deep-sky observing stories first published inAstronomy), andDeep-Sky Observing with Small Telescopes, an anthology about clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. In 1992, the company decided to cease publishingDeep Sky. Although Eicher has stated that he enjoyed editing this smaller magazine, it became clear that to progress further onAstronomy, he had to give up the smaller journal. At its peak, however, and at the time of its discontinuance,Deep Sky swelled to a circulation of 14,000. Within a span of six weeks in 1996, Eicher was promoted successively to senior editor and then to managing editor. After six years as managing editor, in 2002 Eicher became the sixth editor-in-chief ofAstronomy Magazine.[5]
Eicher frequently travels to speak on astronomy or view solar eclipses with tour groups. In 2013 he was invited to speak about great advances in astronomy and on comets atHarvard University, in the Phillips Auditorium ofHarvard College Observatory.[6] He was among the 2014 speakers at the Starmus Festival inTenerife,Canary Islands,[7] and spoke at Harvard again in the spring of 2016, as well as delivering a public talk at Lowell Observatory,Flagstaff, Arizona, in November 2016. In 2017 he spoke at the Science + Mathematics Think-in at WVIZ-PBS ideastream in Cleveland, Ohio.[8] He also spoke at the America's Darkest Sky Star Party at the Dark Sky New Mexico site nearAnimas, New Mexico in April 2017 and October 2017,[9] and in April 2018 delivered the Benson Memorial Lecture in Physics at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.[10]
David Eicher speaking at the Vatican Observatory,Castel Gandolfo, southeast of Rome, Italy, 2007.
From 2011 through 2017, Eicher was president of the Astronomy Foundation.[11] the first ever trade association for thetelescope industry.
Asteroid 3617 Eicher (tick marks) imaged by Canadian astrophotographer Jack Newton on July 5, 2005, using a robotic telescope placed in Portal, Arizona. At this time the asteroid shone at magnitude 16.7 and was just south of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.
Eicher's service to the astronomy world was recognized in 1990 when theInternational Astronomical Union named minor planet3617 Eicher (discovery designation 1984 LJ) in his honor.[12] The asteroid, a main belt object in orbit between Mars and Jupiter, was discovered by astronomerBrian A. Skiff at Lowell Observatory'sAnderson Mesa Station in 1984 and the citation was proposed and written by astronomerDavid H. Levy.
Eicher's books includeCOMETS! Visitors from Deep Space[13] a book withBrian May ofQueen fame, and astronomerGarik Israelian, constituting the conference proceedings, lectures, and information from the firstStarmus Festival, a science and music event held in 2011 in the Canary Islands.[14]
Beginning in 2013, he has been a blogger on astronomy and science topics forThe Huffington Post.[15] In 2015, he joined theAsteroid Day movement as a 100x signatory and serves on that project's board as Editor-in-Chief.][16] In May 2015, he was named to the Board of Directors of theStarmus Festival.[17]
In 2015, Eicher began producing a video series addressing realities of astronomy and astrophysics. Titled "The Real Reality Show", it appears onYouTube and on Astronomy.com.[18] An audio interview series,Superstars of Astronomy, features hour-long podcast talks with prominent astronomers, planetary scientists, and cosmologists, including Jeff Hester, Garik Israelian, Martin Rees, Seth Shostak, Debra Fischer, Sara Seager, Heidi Hammel, and others.[19]
In 2017, Eicher started an audio podcast series5 Questions with David Eicher, which is hosted on theAstronomy Magazine website and features interviews about current scientific research with well-known astronomers, planetary scientists, and cosmologists.[20]
In June 2017, Eicher joined the advisory board ofLowell Observatory, in Flagstaff, Arizona.[21] Also in June 2017, Eicher attended and was a principal actor at the fourthStarmus Festival, which took place inTrondheim, Norway. Eicher served as host on the Festival's opening day, delivered two talks about galaxies, served as moderator and host of a panel discussing science education.[22]
Eicher has written eight books on the subject of theAmerican Civil War, includingDixie Betrayed (Little, Brown),The Longest Night (Simon and Schuster),[23]Civil War High Commands (collaboration with his fatherJohn H. Eicher),[24] andThe Civil War in Books (Univ. of Illinois Press).
Eicher has been a drummer since grade school days in Ohio and currently plays with his band, the Astro Blues Band, in Wisconsin, which consists mostly of people who work with Eicher onAstronomy Magazine.[27]
