First Ark to Alpha Centauri in the International Media
Latest News
December 30, 2009: Abdul Ahad interviewed by Tom Powell regarding his scientific opinion on James Cameron's $237 million budget super-hit movie, Avatar. Read his comments on the Avatar Movie Zone website.
November 12th 2009: Lord Mayor of Luton, Cllr Mohammed Riaz, called 'action' on filming of First Ark to Alpha Centauri movie. "I believe there is much educational value behind this First Ark to Alpha Centauri vision, not just for the adult population of our town for which I serve as Mayor, but also the younger generation of girls and boys growing up across all our boroughs."View article.
Above: On cover of Brit East magazine, Issue 02, September 2009.
August 2009: First Ark to Alpha Centauri Movie enters Pre-Production. View the media articles![1], [2], [3].
May 2009: Abdul Ahad reported he has identified 5 new pairs of common proper motion double stars strewn across the northern constellations of Hercules, Cepheus, Lacerta and Vulpecula. These have not been previously catalogued in double star lists in the astronomical community, and therefore constitute new discoveries.
HD 213128 / BD+51 3386 in constellation Lacerta (V mags 8.88, 9.88, theta 59°, rho 37.6”, spectral type A0 V & A0 V), HD 344698 / HD 344697 in constellation Vulpecula (V mags 10.01, 10.18, theta 294°, rho 22.9”, spectral type A7 V & A7 V), HIP 104969 / BD+67 1298 in constellation Cepheus (V mags 7.91, 9.35, theta 310°, rho 25.0”, spectral type F0 & G5 V), BD+36 3014 / BD+36 3014p in constellation Hercules (V mags 9.44, 10.16, theta 277°, rho 48.7”, spectral type F2 V & K0 V).
He further identified a 10.5 magnitude reddish companion to the 8th magnitude M0 dwarf BD+16 3495 in Hercules. This appears to be a secondary binary companion to BD+16 3495, having shifted by some ~5 to ~10 arcseconds over the past 50 years in relation to the primary star, with a current position angle (theta) of 294°, separation (rho) of some 20 arcseconds. Binarity cannot be verified at present, however, owing to lack of sufficient astrometric data.
December 2008: Ahad's autobiographical short story The Sombrero Spiral Galaxy was published by Mandinam Press in a 280-page anthology ("Forever Friends") with 47 other authors from around the globe. ISBN: 1-4092-3290-5, ISBN 13: 978-1-4092-3290-2. View media articles [1], [2], and on page 4 of [3].
September, 2008: Abdul Ahad's "Magnitude model for establishing the brightnesses and detectability of habitable exoplanets"[1] was featured in James Cameron's Avatar Movie Zone, on this page. It was further cited in the Journal of the Optical Society of America, N. B. Thomas, "Achieving resolution beyond the diffraction limit of telescopic optics with remote masking," J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 26, 437-442 (2009) p. 3 & 13. Read
abstract.
August 28th, 2008: Abdul Ahad's dynamical study on the "Rings of the Earth" was published by IslamOnline.Net following his interview with that organisation's UK correspondent. "Ahad's paper is now being widely viewed as a landmark study in scientific circles, as it provides the first analytical proof that the Earth has always been — and will most likely always remain — forever ringless." Full article viewable here.
May 8th, 2008: Abdul Ahad was awarded Honorary Membership of Bangladesh Astronomical Society by a letter of invitation from Mr. F. R. Sarker (General Secretary). Honorary Membership is awarded under Section 5(v) of the Society's Constitution Rules that states: "Honorary Membership of the Society may be awarded to a person of international repute in the area of astronomy and space science."
October 15th, 2007: The second novel in the First Ark series was recommended reading in The American Chronicle, having been reviewed the previous month in The Daily Star.
August 19th, 2007: Abdul Ahad was telephone interviewed by Anwarul Hoque at the Birmingham studios of BBC Asian Network’s Weekend Bangla program, 2300 British Summer Time. The interview again covered his First Ark to Alpha Centauri sci-fi series.
August 8th, 2007: Abdul Ahad was guest of honor with Rajini Vaidyanathan live on BBC Asian Network’s Nihal program, 1120 to 1140 British Summer Time. The interview took place at BBC Television Center, London, focussing on the author’s views about the future colonization of outer space and his publication of First Ark to Alpha Centauri novel series.
Ahad's Constant and Ahad's Sphere of the Sun's luminous zone of pre-eminence were cited in some of the following on and (known) off-line publications:
The Sky This Week (Download the refereed paper here), East of England Creative News (Jan-Mar 2009 edition, page 4) ,Wikipedia.Org (Talk: "List of scientific laws named after people"), The Mathaba News Network (February 1st, 2007),The Knowhere Guide, The American Chronicle, First Ark to Alpha Centauri 2 (US novel published Baltimore, Maryland, 2006), BritEast Magazine, Issue 02, September 2009, page 19, Exiledwriters.co.uk, IslamOnline.Net, Muslim Ontario, Hi Pakistan, The Daily Star, Writewords.org.uk, Whosreadit.Com, BritBangla.Net, Journal of British Astronomical Association (Letter in Vol 115(5), Oct 2005), First Ark to Alpha Centauri (US novel published Baltimore, Maryland, 2005), The Muslim Writers Society (July 30th, 2005), Muktadara.Net (Page 71 - "Notable Scientists"), The Luton Herald & Post (August 4th, 2005, p. 29), the Janomot (London: Sep 30-Oct 06, 2005, p. 19) and Bangla Mirror newspapers.
"To boldly go where no Muslim has gone before" - Full page article from The Luton News - September 13th 2006, page 4. Read excerpts here.
Abdul Ahad declared sci-fi heroby Bedfordshire newspaperson account of his outstanding achievements. His first book sold a record number of copies in his local Ottakars/Waterstones book store, exceeding prior averages for a locally published author of any genre.
First Ark to Alpha Centauri was featured in the Brit Bangla book success celebrations held in London on April 30th, 2006 and profiled as a best-selling success story in Integria's Headstart incubation project.
The author and his concept were featured in the Headstart project newsletter, April-June 2006. Abdul Ahad received a certificate of exceptional achievement at the Luton Assembly's "Best of Luton Awards 2006" event celebrated March 30th, 2006 in his home town of Luton, UK.
Above image is courtesy of Luton Borough Council. Click to download a full version.
Based on Amazon sales ranks in the UK, France and Germany, First Ark to Alpha Centauri has had a best-seller status consistently within its subject genre ever since the book's launch back in October 2005.
Abdul Ahad received a Community Award on Channel S television, for his book achieving best-seller status on Amazon.co.uk and also in recognition of his astronomical discoveries. The award was presented by His Excellency, the High Commissioner of Bangladesh on a live show in London, aired worldwide 2030 GMT on February 21st, 2006. Watch it on YouTube [Source: Luton/Dunstable on Sunday, September 10th 2006, page 33]
Radio
The author was live on air with DJ John Pilgrim of BBC Three Counties Radio on Friday September 23rd, 2005, at between 4:35 and 4:45 pm (BST), to talk about First Ark to Alpha Centauri. A digital audio file (Winamp, 'WAV' format) of that interview is here. (Allow a few moments for the author's speaking slot to appear.)
Television
The author was live on Bangla TV for 45 minutes on the "Shuvo Shokal" morning show on Sunday October 9th, 2005 from 10:30 am BST. Bangla TV broadcasts live from studios in London via cable/satellite to thousands of homes across the UK, mainland Europe, the United States and also parts of Canada.
Further recorded interviews with the author regarding his book and scientific works were circulated via Channel S televisionnews (UK) and NTV International Television Channel (broadcasting worldwide).
In each of the above TV programs, Abdul Ahad was acknowledged as the first Bangladeshi-born author to successfully publish a mainstream fantasy novel into the worldwide arena via a United States publisher. [Source: Luton/Dunstable on Sunday, September 10th 2006, page 33]
Newspapers
First Ark to Alpha Centauri was featured in the UK's Guardian newspaper for December 17th, 2005 and was covered by Bedfordshire newspapers for week commencing October 9th, 2005. Additionally, it received centre page X-mas feature in the University of Luton's Life newspaper for December 2005.
Further articles relating to the author's scientific works and his first published novel were translated into Bengali (his native language) and reported in Bengali newspapers Janomot (London issue: Sep 30-Oct 06, 2005, page 19) and Potrika, both with a combined weekly circulation of 100,000 + copies across Western Europe.
Following an interview with journalist Emdad Rahman, a full-length review article of First Ark to Alpha Centauri was published here.
That article was later featured in the UK national publication The Muslim Weekly, November 18, 2005, on page 14. The article was also publicised in EuroBangla and Bangla Mirror newspapers.
Following an in depth interview with journalist Andy Gayler, a full-page article "Abdul's State of the Ark Space Odyssey" appeared in the Luton Herald & Post - August 4th 2005, page 29. Citations from the article: "First Ark to Alpha Centauri was originally intended to be a Hollywood-scale motion picture, of a guesstimated production budget of some £50-£60 million." and "...and is responsible for discovery of something now titled the Ahad Radius" (see this page).
![The 10.5 magnitude companion to BD+16 3495 in Hercules in the 1950s [Image credit: Mount Palomar obsevatory]](http://www.freewebs.com/aa_spaceagent1/bd+163495_poss1_ahad.jpg)
![The 10.5 magnitude companion to BD+16 3495 in Hercules in the 1990s [Image credit: Mount Palomar obsevatory]](http://www.freewebs.com/aa_spaceagent1/bd+163495_poss2_ahad.jpg)
