POTSDAM -- SUNY Potsdam's Department of Physics will host two upcoming talks led by a renowned astronomer Monday, May 9 on campus. Both discussions are free and open to the public.

Dr. Neil F. Comins, professor of physics at the University of Maine, is an astrophysicist and astronomer.

He is the author of more than 14 published books on astronomy and space, and has appeared on 100 radio programs worldwide, as well as on numerous television shows.

More than 300,000 copies of his books have been sold worldwide.

He will offer two public physics seminars on the SUNY Potsdam campus, starting with "Misconceptions in Astronomy" at noon on Monday, May 9, in Stowell Hall Room 211.

Comins will also present a talk entitled "What if the Moon were Orbiting Backward, and What if the Moon did not Exist?" at 7 p.m. that same day, in Kellas Hall Room 105.

Both talks are sponsored by the American Astronomical Society through its Harley-Shapely Lectureship, and the physics department.

Comins' first book, "What if the Moon Didn't Exist: Voyages to Earths that Might have Been," has been made into radio, TV and planetarium shows.

It was also the inspiration for the theme for the Mitsubishi pavilion at the World Expo in Aishi, Japan in 2005 and is now a show at the "Huis Ten Bosch" resort near Nagasaki.

His work "Heavenly Errors" explores common misconceptions about astronomy and its origins, and shows how he has helped thousands of students to dispel these myths about the scientific field.

"The Hazards of Space Travel: A Tourist's Guide," is written to give everyone, potential space traveler or not, an awareness of the dangers that humans face in space. Comins has also written and revised three textbooks on astronomy.