In an unscheduled presentation at a birthday celebration for Ray Bradbury Saturday night, Nichelle Nichols ("Uhura") paid tribute to the legendary science fiction author by christening him an "honorary crew member of the Starship Enterprise."

In her remarks at the Planetary Society gathering in Pasadena, Nichols said that Bradbury's presence was always felt during the original Star Trek, and as far as the show's creator was concerned, he was already a member of the crew. "You were a hero to Gene Roddenberry," she told the birthday boy. Nichols then made the honor official by pinning Bradbury's lapel with a Starfleet badge (photo on left).

The 83rd birthday of the author of "The Martian Chronicles" and other sci-fi classics coincides with the closest approach of the planet Mars to Earth in nearly 60,000 years. Saturday night's event celebrated this convergence by following the birthday party at Planetary Society headquarters to a trip to the Mount Wilson Observatory to allow guests to view Mars through the large telescopes there.

At the party, Bradbury was presented with a giant card containing the first 4,000 birthday greetings received through the Society's website. The response to the web-based greeting solicitation has been so popular, that the deadline for submitting a birthday wish to Bradbury has been extended to Wednesday, August 27 — the actual day of the closest Mars-Earth opposition. All well-wishers are invited to submit a greeting, and may do so through this link. A supplemental card will be presented to Bradbury later.

Other Star Trek dignitaries attending the festivities were Andre Bormanis, Executive Story Editor of Enterprise; Michael Okuda, scenic art supervisor and technical consultant to every Star Trek show since The Next Generation; and Denise Okuda, video supervisor who has also been with Star Trek for many years. Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens, authors of many Star Trek novels including several co-written with William Shatner, were also there. They all had greetings included on the birthday card, along with some from Nichols, Robert Picardo, Tim Russ and Eugene W. Roddenberry Jr. (related story).

An audio report about Saturday's fete is available at the Planetary Society site, planetary.org. The report includes an interview with Bormanis, who brought a couple of his own telescopes to Mount Wilson to provide more viewing opportunities for the large group. In the interview, Bormanis speaks about fitting in such activities as this among his hectic schedule on Enterprise, and how Bradbury's stories influenced his interest in astronomy and in writing. That interview is about 23 minutes into the 31-minute audio clip, available on this page.  (Nichols' remarks were not included in the report.)

The Planetary Society has declared August 27 "Mars Day" to encourage people around the world to participate in local observation activities during this rare astronomical event, many of which are listed on the Society's site. It's easy to spot Mars for the next few days — it's the extremely bright light rising in the southwest sky after about 10:00 p.m. The planet is so close that it doesn't take a very strong telescope to make out such specific features as the southern polar ice cap. Those at Mount Wilson the other night were lucky enough to see even more striking details, such as a couple of large volcanic mountains, the Valles Marineris trench, and variations in color across the planetscape.

By the way, Ray Bradbury does have a place in Star Trek history: A ship in "Ménage à Troi" was named after him (the U.S.S. Bradbury), and he was mentioned by name in "Far Beyond the Stars." Bradbury was a friend of Roddenberry and spoke at his memorial service in 1991.