Crosspost: The Milky Way Speaks for Itself: An Interview With Moiya McTier

By Lorraine Boissoneault for HyperText Magazine

Dr. Moiya McTier is the author of The Milky Way, an autobiography of our galaxy told from the perspective of the galaxy itself. 

More than a decade ago, before getting swept into the maelstrom of high school, I went through a star-gazing phase. A Girl Scout summer camp program for astronomy was followed by nights on the deck of our sailboat, staring at the sky to identify constellations and other planets in our Solar System. One summer night while out on Lake Erie, the sky was so clear that the Milky Way was a vibrant white swathe splashed across the darkness. 

In more recent years, my nighttime musings have been marred by the light pollution over Chicago. But I still headed out to watch the lunar eclipse this past May, and have been thrilled to meet with an astrophysicist neighbor and use his telescope to spot nebulae. No matter where I am in the world or in my life, the night sky is enchanting. 

That’s something I share with Moiya McTier, a science communicator who brings her love of folklore and astrophysics to her new book, The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy. We talked about bringing fictional inspiration into complicated science, the dream of uniting science and the humanities, and all the ways that learning about the Milky Way can make us better humans.

You can pre-order a copy of The Milky Way here.

Read the full interview at: https://www.hypertextmag.com/the-milky-way-speaks-for-itself-an-interview-with-moiya-mctier/