1961

1975

2004

Education and Employment
     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 when I took a position as Long Beach City College's (at that time sole) astronomy instructor, in June of 1970. I have been at LBCC ever since, teaching on a full-time basis (and for many years, carrying nearly a double load to accommodate increasing enrollment) for thirty-nine years. I retired from full-time teaching in May 2009, but continued to teach a reduced number of lab and lecture classes through May 2010, thereby completing my 40th year at LBCC. However, in order to accommodate the demands of my writing career, I plan to teach only lab classes, from now on.

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

Contacting / Following Me On the Net
     Aside from this website, its toolbar and RSS feed, now that I have finished my second novel, and have something to blog about, I plan to maintain an Amazon Author page.
     For direct contact, email me at courtney@cseligman.com. If you have a question about astronomy or related sciences, you might consider contacting me at AllExperts.com (the link is to my profile page). If you have a personal question, you can message me at FaceBook.com (the link is to the public page, not the page seen by FaceBook friends). I also have memberships in more than a dozen other social networks, but only so that I can redirect requests from members of those networks to one of the sites mentioned above.

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).
     My main astronomical activity at the moment (and, I expect, the rest of my life) is the web site I maintain for my students and the general public, at cseligman.com. Although part of the site is devoted to my classes, there are close to 800 pages, gradually being added to and organized into an Online Astronomy Text, which are of more general interest (as evidenced by the fact that it receives more than half a million visitors a year).
     I also hold Friday evening Astronomy Open Houses about once a month during the Spring and Fall semesters. If the weather cooperates, there is a telescope viewing session on the roof of the D building, following a planetarium presentation in D326. If it is cloudy or raining, I still hold the planetarium presentation, but do not have a telescope viewing session.

	Reading, Writing, and Recreation      My current interests include reading, playing the piano, and writing. 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. (Less energetic pursuits, such as walking and bowling, are now my main forms of recreation.)
I also used to enjoy writing computer code, using punched paper tape on the 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 II (the true geek's heavenly body). 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.

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.