We intentionally limit the number of guests on our tours to about thirty or less. This helps insure close, personal attention by Continental Capers personnel and our other escorts.

Guests of Continental Capers have the services of Marian P. Cohen, an independent travel contractor and travel specialist with Continental Capers, with thirty years experience in the travel business.

Ms. Cohen also holds bachelor and master degrees from the University of Michigan and Indiana University respectively. Early in her career she taught history and chemistry in public schools.

Ms. Cohen's expertise and experience involves all aspects of travel from individual bookings to group and specialty tours. This includes includes arranging and escorting unique adventure tours with her husband through their Voyages of Discovery Tours. She has also traveled to nine total eclipses of the Sun.

In addition, Continental Capers arranges for local, professional guides to accompany guests. Finally, all guests of Continental Capers have access to a professional scientist or naturalist traveling with the group.

Continental Capers uses the services of Dr. Howard L. Cohen to help arrange and escort many of its specialty tours. Dr. Cohen is an emeritus professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Florida where he was on the faculty for over thirty-five years. He is an accomplished public speaker. His “down-to-earth” presentations use lively computer displays, which he has perfected through years of teaching at the University.

Dr. Cohen became engrossed with astronomy as an amateur over fifty years ago. He subsequently studied astronomy, physics and math at the University of Michigan where he received his B.S. degree. Graduate work in astronomy at Indiana University led to Masters and Ph.D. degrees.

Dr. Cohen continues his interest in communicating his excitement of the heavens to others. He help found and organize a small, local amateur group in the 1970s (The Florida Astronomical Society, no longer in existence). However, in 1987 he also became a founding member of the Alachua Astronomy Club, Inc. (AAC), which has now grown into a major Florida amateur astronomy society. Over the years he has served in various club capacities as vice president, newsletter editor, program chair, web master and executive board member. He is a frequent speaker at club meetings and continues to contribute to the club's newsletter (FirstLight). In January 2012 Dr. Cohen and his wife, Marian, were awarded a 25-year service award.

As a teacher Professor Cohen has taught more than 15,000 students basic astronomy and science. He has also helped pioneer the use of multimedia for teaching astronomy at the University of Florida. Under a NASA grant during the 1990s Dr. Cohen prepared and taught workshops in Florida schools to introduce teachers to the basics of image processing.

For a while in the 1960's he was a visiting astronomer at Lowell Observatory doing photometric work on the Sun and binary stars. He was also active in their public outreach programs. A favorite activity was introducing visitors to Lowell's unique history and facilities.

Research interests have spanned a variety of projects including eclipsing binaries and star clusters, lunar and asteroid occultations, eclipses and calendars. During the 1980s Dr. Cohen was first to test a prototype of a new Air Force ground-based electro-optical deep-space surveillance system (GEODSS) for the detection of asteroids and comets.

During the late 1980s Dr. Cohen was also a technical consultant, speaker and regional sales manager for Meade Instruments, Inc., a leading manufacturer of astronomical telescopes for the serious amateur. He also arranged and presented dozens of Meade telescope training workshops for store personnel.

China Total Solar Eclipse Anji County, China, 2009 July 22 Success Though Overcast Skies Threatend (Composite Image Here)

In 1998 and 1999 he helped the Alachua Astronomy Club conceptualize a series of large, sky murals for the lobby of a local movie theater originally owned by Eastern Federal Corp. In addition, he helped design an astronomical theme for a Tampa, Florida transportation plaza. In 1998, Dr. Cohen became a consultant to the Gainesville Art in Public Places Trust to help a Florida artist and the AAC design, build and erect a scale model of the solar system along a one-mile stretch of road in Gainesville.

Dr. Cohen has traveled to ten total and annual solar eclipses. He has helped organize and lead successful eclipse tours to the Caribbean (1998), an exciting African eclipse safari (2001), and a sensational Australian eclipse tour in 2002. Other tours he has helped plan and escort include the rare transit of Venus to Crete in 2004, eclipse tours to the South Pacific (2005) and Egypt (2006), a unique astronomy, archaeology and geology tour of Arizona (2005), a successful China eclipse tour (2009), and a beautiful Norway Northern Lights Cruise (2010).

In the spring of 2012 he will conduct a private tour to view both the May annular solar eclipse and the June transit of Venus. Finally, work is now finished on another tour, the 2012 Australia Total Eclipse of November 14.

Dr. Cohen occassionally dabbles in sky related and other photography. Some pictures are his picture pages.

Dr. Cohen is a member of the Alachua Astronomy Club, Inc., American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Astronomical Society, Association of Lunar & Planetary Observers, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, International Dark Sky Association, International Planetarium Society, Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain, and Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society.

« Go to Professor Cohen's Home Page for Additional Biographical Info and Pictures »