HenryJoy McCracken

Astronomer at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris

Everything else

Espresso!

I'm a keen espresso drinker. If I'm at the IAP and I'm not in a meeting, I can be found in my office at 14.00 preparing espresso. In 2009, this espresso-obession culminated in a trip to Illy factory in Trieste, Italy, where I had probably one of the best espressos of my life. I still have the two glass cups from that trip which are reserved for special visitors to afternoon espresso.

Literature

I still like to read an actual book written on actual paper. Growing up in Ireland, one my favourite authors was the american writer Kurt Vonnegut; these days, among the current generation of American writers, Richard Powers is probably the one that I connect to most, as a scientist in any case: here's what I wrote about recent books.

One of the nice things about living in Paris is that one can even, if one so desires, meet the writers themselves. But as I found recently, this isn't always such a good idea.

Travel

I still like to travel, even though I have a lot of it to do these days with all these projects. There are still a few adventures to be had, although most places I find myself in are those places where astronomy is practiced.

Photography

Here you can find a selection of my photographs. A statement of intent can be found over on Leicaphilia.

Writing

Here is a link to all article's I've written for Jenny Rohn's Lablit: http://www.lablit.com/ author/ 52.

. Here's my infrequently-updated blog.