Jim is not alone. Lots of amateur astronomers miss the Orionids, and many other significant astronomical events. There are many reasons for this, but generally they either find out about them too late or they neglect to write them down when they do hear about them in advance.

Being an amateur astronomer is not like being a television critic. Mother Nature provides no reruns. Planetary conjunctions are not released on DVD. An eclipse of the sun is never delayed because a professional baseball game went into extra innings. And frankly, even if Nature`s major shows were recorded and then rebroadcast, it would not be the same. Hardly anyone can remember what Halley`s Comet videos they saw in 1986, but few who spent a night standing out in open fields straining to see the world`s most famous comet will ever forget the actual experience.

It is simultaneously a source of excitement and frustration for astronomers: Once-in-a-lifetime events only occur once in a lifetime.

It is one thing to miss a rare event because of uncooperative weather, but it is something else entirely to miss such an event because you were too busy to log onto your favorite website. This database can solve such problems.

Simply load this data onto your computer`s calendaring program and then synchronize it with your PocketPC or PalmOS device. Your calendar and your PDA (personal digital assistant) will then contain all the major astronomical events for the year. Simply click on a note attached to an all-day event to see:

(1)     Current astronomical events (conjunctions, eclipses, occultations, etc.)

(2)     Astronomical anniversaries for that day in history

(3)     Birthdays of major contributors to fields of astronomy and space exploration, and

(4)     Historical space exploration events that occurred on the date selected.