David Levy Biography

David Levy was born in Montreal, Canada on May 22, 1948 and cultivated a fascination with astronomy beginning as a child.  Despite this early precociousness displayed in this particular field, Levy obtained a bachelor's and master's degree in English Literature instead.  In 1967, Levy was nearly removed from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's Montreal Centre after a few quarrels with the group's leaders.  However, after developing communication through letters with Isabel Williamson, one of the leaders he had infuriated the most, he became a regular visitor and Levy was able to maintain his position as a member of the centre. 

Levy has been able to discover 22 comets, nine of which were found using his own backyard telescopes.  One of his most notable accomplishments was made through his work at the Palomar Observatory, located in California, with the help of the fellow astronomers Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker.  They were able to discover the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, appropriately named for their two last names, that actually collided with the planet Jupiter and created one of the most dramatic and visually enticing explosions ever witnessed in our Solar System.  David formerly served as the editor from 1997 until 2006 for "Parade Magazine", which reached an audience of about one fourth the population of the United States Levy is currently a contributor to the famed "Sky and Telescope" magazine and regularly writes articles as a apart of the "Star Trails" column.  Levy has written or edited 35 books in total and has won an Emmy in 1998 as one of the writers for  the Discovery Channel's documentary "Three Minutes To Impact".  He is a frequent guest on television shows and talk shows, such as "Good Morning America" and "The Today Show". 

Also David and his wife Wendee host a radio show once a week on the website letstalkstars.com.  David Levy is president of the National Sharing The Sky Foundation, that seeks to educate the general public about Astronomy and stimulate interest to further pursue the subject.  Levy and his wife currently live in Vail, Arizona and are members of The Jarnac Comet Survey which operates mainly out of the Arizona Jarnac Observatory but has telescopes stationed internationally.  Ironically after nearly being expelled from Canada's Royal Astronomical Society early in his career, Levy has been one of the most, if not the number one, successful modern astronomers and continues to be involved in an extreme variety of projects.