Difference between revisions of "Category:Stargazing"

The Stargazing series was released over just a bit more than 9 years between the first 1644: Stargazing in 2016 to the fourth 3072: Stargazing 4 in 2025. It first became a series with the second comic 2017: Stargazing 2 released in July 2018, one and a half year after the first, explaining why it is placed after the three above. There was a gap of more than five years between the third and the fourth, which was even longer than between the first and the third release as, 2274: Stargazing 3 came out in February 2020, almost exactly four years after the first. 1291: Shoot for the Moon may have been a prelude to this series, as it also consists of Megan giving strangely opinionated lectures about celestial objects.

The series could reference BBC's Stargazing Live, which Brian Cox has appeared in since 2011. If drawn in xkcd style he would likely look like Megan. He has a PhD in high-energy particle physics, but not astronomy. The newest season of the show aired during January 2016 just a month before the first comic's release. Brian Cox has also been the presenter of several other science programs, especially such as the Wonders of the Solar System, Wonders of the Universe and Wonders of Life. Originally, the host was described as male in the official transcript, making this seem more likely.

It could also be a reference to Jack Horkheimer's PBS shows Star Hustler and Star Gazers. Horkheimer, however, does not at all look like Megan, and he died 6 years ago. But he was not a doctor in astronomy, only getting into it when he started volunteering at the Miami Museum of Science's planetarium. He ended up writing shows for the planetarium and the PBS series developed from there. He rarely covered facts about the night sky that couldn't be found in any basic reference (possibly because the show was aimed at children and non-astronomy buffs), although he did get more in-depth about current astronomical events such as Comet Hale–Bopp.