About Professor Seligman
I may feel the same on the inside, but the outside's another matter...
Summer Science Program picture of Courtney Seligman, age 15
1960, age 15		Brea-Olinda Union High senior photo of Courtney Seligman, age 16
1961, age 16		holiday self-portrait of Courtney Seligman, age 30
1975, age 30		LBCC faculty photo of Courtney Seligman, age 59
2004, age 59		Self portrait of Courtney Seligman, age 76
2021, age 76
Favorite Quotation
"How infinitesimal is the importance of anything I can do,
but how infinitely important it is that I should do it." — Voltaire

Education, Employment, Maintenance of This Website, and the Future
 I received a BA in Astronomy and Physics and an MA in Astronomy from UCLA, and was working on a doctoral dissertation on the distribution of galaxies in the Universe (namely, they exist as individual galaxies, clusters of galaxies and superclusters) when I took a position as Long Beach City College's (at that time sole) astronomy instructor in June of 1970. I remained at LBCC on a full-time basis (and for many years, nearly a double full-time basis to accommodate increased enrollment) for 39 years. I retired from full-time teaching in May of 2009, but continued to teach a reduced number of classes until May of 2012, at which time I fully retired after 42 years at the College. During that time I taught tens of thousands of students, and I greatly appreciate the notes some of them took the time to write, telling me what a difference my classes made in their lives. No matter what I may accomplish in later years, I expect my time at LBCC to remain the defining episode of my life.
 My main astronomical activity at the moment (and I expect for the rest of my life) is the web site I maintain for students and the general public at cseligman.com. As of February 2021 there were more than 1000 pages and 18000 astronomical images on the site, which are continually being added to and organized into an Online Astronomy Text and Sky Atlas, and are just as useful now as they were when I was using them for my classes, as evidenced by the fact that the site averages nearly a million visitors a year. I hope to have another 20 to 30 years to work on the site, and expect to eventually finish all the major projects associated with it; but whatever state it is in when I am no longer around, I have already made arrangements for it to remain online for as long as it remains useful and relevant.
 Rather ironically, considering that I thought I had given up research when I decided to teach, my teaching led to the discovery that modern astronomical catalogues often misidentify objects in the historically important New General Catalogue (NGC) and its following Index Catalogues (IC), and starting a few years before my retirement from teaching I began what has turned into a decades-long project to re-evaluate the historical catalogues and bring them up to date, and I now spend more time working with colleagues scattered around the globe than I did before I "gave up" research.

Minor Note Concerning Address
 Once I discovered how much I preferred teaching to research I abandoned my doctoral research, so although it might be appropriate to call me "Professor Seligman", "Doctor Seligman" is incorrect.

Contacting / Following Me On the Net
 Use the "Contact Me" link in the banner at the top of every page on this site to send me an email. Or use one of the links in that part of the banner with a pale image of a liger as its background to view my other online presence.

 Past Astronomical Activities
 Although as noted above I abandoned research soon after I started at LBCC, if you are interested in my early research, Google Scholar lists a number of articles and citations of articles that I worked on as an undergraduate and graduate student at UCLA (the link is to the first search page for my name).
 For most of my 42 years at LBCC I held Friday evening Astronomy Open Houses about once a month throughout the school year, but now that I am retired I no longer present them.

Courtney Seligman and wife Sheri at Las Vegas swing dance competition, 1981
Current Activities
 My current interests include reading, playing the piano, working on the aforementioned re-evaluation of the NGC/IC, and writing novels and short stories (romantic and fantasy fiction). In the late 1970's and early 80's, I was very involved with American-style ballroom dancing. It was through dancing that I met my wife — a very nice bonus for what was already a very pleasurable avocation — and although we haven't danced competitively for many years, we still enjoy an occasional turn around the floor. (Due to a 2008 injury, less energetic pursuits, such as walking and bowling are now my main forms of physical recreation.)
Cover of my first novel, Two Pigs and a Chicken
 I also used to enjoy writing computer code, using punched paper tape on a Bendix G-15 in the early 60's, Hollerith cards for FORTRAN batch programs on an IBM mainframe in the mid 60's, TV Typewriters for interactive gaming in the late 60's (click here to read a note about that), and in the mid 80's, BASIC and assembly language on an Apple IIc (the most easily programmable computer I ever had the pleasure of using). Once computers became tools instead of geek toys, I abandoned coding for real-world writing, such as my website and novels; but I still enjoy reminiscing about the dinosaurs I used to play with.
Photo of Courtney Seligman and friends on hike up Mount Silliman in mid 1960's
 Posing with friends on a (1965?) hike to the top of Mount Silliman. I used to love hiking, and especially enjoyed body-sledding down one of the snowfields surrounding the mountain on the way back; but after getting sun poisoning on this trip, I began to confine my walking to twilight and night-time hours.