  This special issue is dedicated to starshades: science, engineering,
technology and programmatics. Our reasons for organizing this special issue are
several fold. First as a new technology and with research accomplished in many
institutions, recent results are widely scattered in the literature. As such,
we see great value in co-locating many of the most recent results. This guest
editorial summarizes the 19 contributed papers as the result of a special call
for papers. Since this is a rapidly maturing technology, we wanted to co-locate
a primer with the most current work in the field. It is hoped that this primer
will provide a tutorial to the starshade concept and pathway to the literature
not in this issue. In doing so, we hope to widen the starshade community in
terms of engineering and scientific engagements. This tutorial takes the form
of a dialog, where frequently asked questions are answered.
