I met him about 10 years ago at an astronomy conference. Very nice man, and a great speaker.<p>His talk was about the influence the appearance of comets had on politics in classical civilizations. It was an excellent presentation.<p>As a visual aid, he brought out Roman era coins, from his personal collection, which commemorated comets and various leaders, including Cleopatra if I remember correctly. As he finished talking about each one, he would hand it down into the audience to be passed around and viewed by everyone.<p>I remember thinking that that was pretty brave of him, considering the size of the audience and the low lighting conditions. But he got them all back.<p>He will be missed.
I looked forward to his little five minute vignettes into the night sky on PBS--called Star Gazer. He helped spur my interest in astronomy. He made a difference in my life as I'm sure he did in many other people's lives. (We'll miss you, Jack.)
I'll miss him. He conveyed such incredible enthusiasm in his TV segments and brightened up so many of my evenings. He was an absolute, unabashed nerd, and I say that with the utmost of admiration and respect. RIP.