Greater Skies started as an on-line repository of things I wanted to explain to my children. I want them to find the fascination of the sudden comprehension, and I also want them to have a sense of where they are: how big things are, how do they work, how do they interrelate, where does this earth they live on belong.

I was not only talking to them now, at their 9 and 11 years: I wanted to explain everything I would like to tell them about, regardless of how complex it is, so that they will understand it when the time comes. Trying to be clear, but without dumbing things down. This is not child talk.

I learnt many of these things in needlessly complicated or boring ways. This is unfortunate. We need to make an effort to find the clearest explanations, those that are most likely to light the flash of insight. Learning is not easy: we should not hide the fact that it requires effort and perseverance, nor should we make it any more difficult than it is.

There are more articles in Spanish than in English. Eventually everything will be in at least these two languages.

I want Greater Skies to grow into a collaborative project. It is hosted at github, and I've set it up so that it should be easy to add articles and translations (if you are familiar with git, emacs and Orgmode). So far only English and Spanish are represented, but I'd like to add other languages. If you want to contribute you can do it in two ways: write things down and send them to me, or fork the git repository at github, add whatever you deem convenient, and let me know.

Juan Reyero, 2010-01-17