Recent Work

Bits and pieces of interesting pretties I've picked up along the way.

Distant Suns for iOS+10 Years

Ten years ago, this week, I got this message...

Where is the Tesla Tonight, Sept. 26?

Where is Elon’s Tesla tonight? Heading out...

“Welcome to my planetarium!” – Distant Suns (+VR) Released

Ever wanted to travel through space? Me too....

Recent Blog Posts

October 26, 2018 |

Distant Suns for iOS+10 Years

Ten years ago, this week, I got this message from Apple: Dear Mike Smithwick, The status for the following...

September 25, 2018 |

Where is the Tesla Tonight, Sept. 26?

Where is Elon’s Tesla tonight? Heading out of Scorpius towards Sagittarius.

July 25, 2018 |

“Welcome to my planetarium!” – Distant Suns (+VR) Released

Ever wanted to travel through space? Me too. Growing up in the 60s, it was hard to ignore the moon program. If...

April 3, 2018 |

Creating addictive… anything, from catchy songs to software

I am always looking for tips on how to make DS a package people may want to use even if there is no astronomical...

November 13, 2017 |

50 years ago…

Fifty years ago this month of November, the Saturn V moon rocket, took to its wings for the very first time....

September 28, 2017 |

Distant Suns and iOS 11

I’ve received a couple of reports that Distant Suns-Max and iOS 11 don’t play well together, and...

August 28, 2017 |

The “Great American Eclipse” lived up to it’s name

When I was asked last week about how many eclipses I’ve seen, I must respond define ‘seen’. Ultimately, I’ll...

May 19, 2017 |

Distant Suns T+30 years and counting

Thirty years ago, last April, a new software application for the Commodore Amiga went on sale. Named Galileo, it...

January 20, 2017 |

God Speed Gene Cernan

The past year has seen the passings of three of my childhood “heros,” two of which were moonwalkers and the third...

December 12, 2016 |

Godspeed John Glenn

The term “hero” has been one of the most overused and misused words of the past couple of decades. (“diversity”...

September 4, 2016 |

Yet more weird crap in Mike’s place

Back before Apollo 15 I met someone who had a friend at the space center in Houston. I wrote him, Ron was his...

May 7, 2016 |

If you want an Apollo Command Module, just build one…

Like many of space-nerds in training who grew up in the 60’s, we longed to have our own Apollo spacecraft or...

May 5, 2016 |

Freedom 7 + 55 years

As I am writing this, it is the 55th anniversary of the launch of the Mercury Spacecraft, Freedom 7, our first...

March 14, 2016 |

Ed Mitchell and Apollo 14

The passing of Apollo 14 astronaut, Ed Mitchell, recently marks in a way, “the beginning of the end” of the...

November 26, 2015 |

Weird crap in Mike’s place: Gemini 5 flight plan

In the arena of space collecting there are many levels to handle the many different interests and bank accounts....