Brown Dwarfs and 3D Mars on a cloudy night

Though the clouds kept us from observing the heavens, we had a delightful time from 7 to 9 pm Friday, February 5, 2010 learning about brown dwarf stars from Dr. Emily Rice of the American Museum of Natural History in a half hour lecture. Dr. Rice explained how brown dwarfs were first hypothesized and discovered and what we could expect with new missions including the WISE spacecraft for finding more of these enigmatic objects. She believes that it is likely there is a brown dwarf closer to us than Proxima Centauri (the second closest star to us after the Sun) that hasn't been discovered yet, but will be with WISE. Watch the news for exciting announcements coming from this mission which has been flying for almost two months now.

Additionally, we had a wonderful 3D-tour of Mars led by our own graduate student, Jana Grcevich using new 3D-display technology in our 1322 Pupin theater. These trips through 3-dimensional space are getting to be a real hit with those who attend our outreach events. If you haven't been in a while, consider coming and experiencing it for yourself!

Family Astro Day will be happening in two weeks February 20th from 5 to 7 pm. The theme this time will be "EXOPLANETS: The Search For Planets Outside Our Solar System". The program is designed for families with children aged 6 to 12. Space is limited, though, so please e-mail us to RSVP.

Extraterrestrial Life and The 3D Wall

Friday, January 22nd kicked off our spring public lecture series and stargazing nights. First we had an excellent lecture by Neil Zimmerman entitled The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence in the 21st Century. Neil talked about the Drake Equation, the SETI program, and the various ways astronomers search for intelligence in space using radio scans, laser scans, and more. He then discussed upcoming SETI projects involving the Allen Telescope Array and the Square Kilometer Array.

Since the weather was clear, we were able to observe on the roof after the lecture. Targets included Mars, the first-quarter Moon, the Pleaides, and the Orion Nebula. In addition, there were slideshows held on how stars work and the diversity of galaxies in the Universe.

We had a new treat for visitors last night: 3D visualizations of galaxies, the Orion Nebula and a fly-over Mars using our state-of-the-art 3D wall. Visitors were lent 3D glasses for a fully immersive astronomy experience. We intend to hold this fairly frequently during our star-gazing sessions.

Thanks to all the 140 attendees and 10 volunteers who showed up!

--Cameron

Moon Highlights

On Thursday January 21st, we hosted Columbia University's Treasury Department for an hour and a half of discussion and observations. First we taught the 12 or so attendees about the recent discovery of water on the moon. We detailed the nature of these discoveries and the implications they have for future space exploration and extraterrestrial life. Then we went up to the roof to take advantage of the cloud-free night. The Orion Nebula, the Pleaides and the first-quarter Moon were all visible.

--Cameron

Telescopes and Children

On Friday, we hosted about 26 first and second graders, plus two fifth graders, from the EP1 public school.  Lia Corrales and Nick Hunt-Walker were the two graduate student volunteers for this group.  The visit lasted from 11 am to about 12:45 pm.

A lot of the session was based on telescopes.  The kids were asked to draw a picture or write their name on a piece of paper, which we taped to a wall on the opposite end of the hallway.  Then they looked at the pictures through a galileoscope to see how the image was flipped upside-down.  We showed them how the lenses flipped the image using an optics bench demonstration.  We then gave them a tour of the observatory and explained to them the difference between a refracting (lense) telescope and a reflecting (mirror) telescope.  Finally, we gave them a slide show of solar system pictures and answered their questions.  The children sang us a song before leaving.

Overall, it went well because the kids were enthusiastic (and adorable).  One thing that would have made it better would have been using tripods with the galileoscopes.  It was difficult to keep them steady enough for the kids to look through.  An adult ended up steadying each using the back of a chair so that kids could look, so it took a long time to get through that portion of the activity.

- Lia -

2012 and the end of the IYA

Last night was our last public lecture of the International Year of Astronomy. Cameron Hummels gave a talk on Will the World End in 2012? and the short answer to take away from his lecture was no, it will not. Cameron discussed some of the claims that are floating around about various ways in which the world/civilization could come to an end in 3 years time on December 21, 2012, and then he proceeded to scientifically debunk each claim with solid facts.

Following the lecture, we gave away 2 Galileoscopes as well as a few hundred NASA image posters to audience members. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperative, so we were unable to view the winter sky, but we offered telescope tours of our facilities, and we had several slideshows on astronomical themes. Josh Schroeder discussed stars and their interiors, and then Andrew Brown presented a talk on the skies of the Southern Hemisphere--how they differ from ours and some visual highlights.

Lastly, there was a visiting schoolgroup of 50 middle school students from New Rochelle who had a special private discussion with some of our volunteers as part of the Rooftop Variables project.

All in all the event was our most successful cloudy outreach event with 250 attendees and more than 10 volunteers. Thank you everyone for helping us to close out the International Year of Astronomy with a bang!

--Cameron

Sidewalk Astronomy in Harlem

Yesterday evening the weather turned in our favor at the 11th hour, giving us a brief window in a week of dreary overcast skies. With a 6" telescope, Jess and I showed people the Moon and Jupiter from our usual corner, the plaza at 125th St & Powell Blvd. The landscape of craters and mountains, so dramatic in the first-quarter moon phase, made a big impression on the 70 or so people who stopped to have a look. Many were excited to hear about Cameron's lecture coming up on Dec 4th about the myth of the 2012 apocalypse, so hopefully we'll see some of those faces again next week.

-Neil

Gravitational Waves & Black Holes

Last night we had a good turnout for Professor Szabolcs Marka's lecture on gravitational waves and black holes entitled: "A Matter of Life and Death: How Black Holes Do It." Szabi gave a good introduction to gravitational waves and some of the expected strong sources of gravitational waves in the Universe. He finished up by talking about the various projects for actually observing gravitational waves and the difficulties in doing so.

Afterwards, we gave away a Galileoscope to a lucky member of the audience, and we provided some cool NASA swag to the attendees. The weather was mostly cooperative, so attendees had the option of going up to the roof to get views of the Pleaides and Jupiter, or sticking around in the lecture hall to hear a couple of mini-lectures and slideshows. Cameron Hummels explained the science behind the discovery of water on the Moon along with the most recent results from LCROSS that came out last week. Josh Schroeder discussed the basics of spiral galaxies and fielded questions on all kinds of astrophysical topics.

Thank you to all 8 volunteers and the 130 audience members who showed up for this event!

--Cameron