I have been a self-taught student of astronomy and astrophysics for many years, starting at the age of 19 when I began to seriously wonder what gravity was and how it worked. For most of my career I have been a systems engineer developing large-scale command and control systems. In recent years I have been a consultant specializing in computers. My academic background is in master's level Mathematics and Physics.
I chose not to go into physics as a profession many years ago because I was presented only two career paths in the field — experimental physics (designing experiments and collecting data) or theoretical physics (strictly mathematical) — neither of which appealed to me. Instead I chose a non-science career, and to pursue a path of independent research. By freeing myself to pursue any line of reasoning I choose, unencumbered by anyone else's opinions or direction, I have been able to look at the universe free of any dogma the astronomical community dictates. This has allowed me to question many things I simply do not believe, such as cosmological distances for quasars, the expanding universe and the Big Bang. My research is mine alone, and aimed solely at the truth.
This independent research led to the writing and publishing of my first book on astronomy in 1982, The Deceptive Universe. In that book I attempted to show that much of what we see in the universe are really optical illusions caused by the bending of light by gravity. Many of the ideas in this first book were completely unique and quite innovative, and have still not been discussed in astronomical articles. After twenty seven years, I still stand behind most of what this book contains. But although I discussed one subject, the Shapiro effect, at length, the importance of this phenomenon escaped me at the time. Now I realize that the Shapiro effect causes the redshift of distant galaxies, and replaces the Doppler effect as the source of the galactic redshift! This means that the universe is not expanding As astronomers presently believe, and that there never was a Big Bang.
The manuscript for a second book has been completed. In this new book, I believe the puzzle of what the universe is really about has finally been unraveled, and what causes most of what we observe can now be understood in an entirely new light. And it is nothing like what astronomers believe today! There are very simple answers to much of the riddles of the universe, and I am content that finally, after all these years, I have identified them. (Note that material for the book was extensively researched at the Yale Astronomical Library and the University of Iowa Science Library, as well as extensive Internet research, over a period of several years).
I am in search of a publisher for my second book, tentatively titled Re-Inventing the Universe. It is difficult enough to find a publisher for a book that goes against the astronomical establishment if you are a professional in the area, but you can imagine how difficult it will be for an amateur such as myself. I hope this web site will generate enough interest, and some positive comments via e-mail, to convince a publisher to review and accept my new manuscript.
A few copies of my first book, The Deceptive Universe, are still available. Send a request to my e-mail address jthacker@msn.com.