June 14: Cowboys & Aliens

Last Friday, June 14, we screened the joint Western+SciFi action film "Cowboys & Aliens" for an audience of enthusiastic movie-goers. We started the night with a short film, "The Shot", a 5-minute piece about a magical camera lens that works as a teleportation device. The short portrays a man who finds and then uses the lens to travel the world, but trouble arises when he accidentally takes a photo that has him travel out of this world!

The feature, "Cowboys & Aliens", is a genre-mashup that asks "how would a pre-1900, small western town handle an alien invasion?" The answer is: Daniel Craig, the film's leading actor. The film combines references to classic western films like "A Fistful of Dollars" alongside clear homage to sci-fi movies such as "Alien" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (up next in our summer film series). Though there is not much science to discuss in the movie, we did estimate that the height of the alien rocket is about ~3 times the size of a Saturn V at about ~10 times the width. One wonders how the aliens use gold as a power source for such a large vessel...

Join us next time on July 12th for our next Summer Film & Stargazing Event!

--Adrian Price-Whelen (graduate student)

June 29: Transformers 3

On June 29, 2012, approximately 70 people came to see "Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon" in our third installment of our summer science fiction film series. The movie has most of the main cast return from the previous movies with Optimus Prime leading the way. The plot involves a government cover-up dealing with the real objective of the Apollo Moon missions and the space race with the Russia. In the movie, we find out that evidence that we are not alone is cemented in the Apollo 11 mission where they (implausibly) travel to the "dark side" of the Moon to examine an alien crash site. Once the Autobots find out that their long lost leader from the Cybertronian War crash-landed there, Optimus goes to revive Sentinel Prime, and as the plot ensues, finds out that he was betrayed by Sentinel to take over the Earth and use humans to restore Cybertron through slave labor. To accomplish his goal, Sentinel deploys a set of teleportation devices he created called "pillars" around the world with the help of the Decepticons. However, at the last minute, Optimus Prime and others are able to stop Sentinel and save mankind from eternal enslavement.

After the movie, PhD candidate in Astronomy, Duane Lee, talked about two scientific theories related to the movie: tidal-locking in relation to the origin of the Moon, and teleportation in the context of current research and future technology. The attendees enjoyed the movie and had many questions about tidal-locking of the Moon's orbit.

Join us for our next event when we screen "Waterworld" on July 13th followed by a discussion of the science of global warming.

--Duane

June 15: The Right Stuff

Last Friday, June 15th, we screened "The Right Stuff" for a dedicated audience who stuck around for all 3+ hours of the film which chronicles the evolution of the U.S. Space Program from its origins with the early test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base through the first class of astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury. The film is an adaptation of the book by the same title written by Tom Wolfe in 1979. Spanning the years 1957 to 1963, the film begins with Chuck Yeager's historical flight of the X-1 during which he was the first man to break the sound barrier. Soon after, the Russians launch Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, and the space race begins. NASA put out the call for astronauts and heavily recruited test pilots from Edwards for their ability and desire to push the flight envelope. 

The film highlights the initial milestones of the first astronauts: Alan Shepard's suborbital flight as the first American in space and John Glenn's orbital flight consisting of three complete orbits to become the first American to orbital the Earth. [Unfortunately, both men had been beaten to being the first man to accomplish either feat by the Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin.] The discussion afterwards focused on the accuracy of some of the events portrayed in the film as well as the current state of the experimental X-plane program. Of note was the controversial loss of Gus Grissom's capsule, Liberty Bell 7, during recovery. Subsequent analysis shows no evidence for any wrongdoing on Grissom's part and an expedition was even mounted in 1999 to raise the capsule from the ocean floor. Lastly, the discussion also touched upon the recent news of the X-37B, which recently landed at Vandenburg Air Force Base after 469 days in orbit. 

Be sure to join us for our next event on June 29th when we'll be screening "Transformers: Dark of the Moon". 

--Summer

June 1: Star Trek - First Contact

 

On June 1, 2012, 50 people came to see "Star Trek: First Contact" as the first film in our summer Science Fiction Film series. The movie stars the cast of the television show "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and its plot centers around a group of cybernetic machine-human hybrids attempting to assimilate humanity in a grab for galactic domination. These alien "Borg" go back in time to stop the event called, "First Contact" where human beings first contact alien life forms after inventing faster-than-light travel.

After the movie, PhD candidate in Astronomy, Joshua Schroeder, described for the audience three scientific ideas related to the movie: the Copernican Principle, the Drake Equation, and General Relativity in the context of time travel to the past. The attendees generally reported enjoying the movie and had many questions about Schroeder's critique.

Summer Astronomy Events

Two events happened over the last two weeks involving Columbia Astronomy's Outreach Program.

First, on Friday May 27 at 7 pm, about 30 people came to this year's inaugural Science Fiction Movie Night. Due to the success of last year's program, this year, we're screening science fiction films in Pupin Hall that have astronomical themes. Our calendar for the summer can be seen here, and there will be four additional ones before August.

May 27's movie was Red Planet starring Val Kilmer. Graduate student Lia Corrales led the discussion after the film about the various aspects of science fiction and science fact found in the movie. The people in attendance generally gave her rave reviews, if not the film. After the film, a few astronomers set up a six-inch Dobsonian telescope on College Walk and gave out free views of Saturn.

Then, last Friday, June 3, a number of Columbia Astronomers took telescopes over to Brooklyn for a star party associated with the World Science Festival. Many members of the general public came out and looked through the telescope at various astronomical targets. Hundreds of people got a chance to see Saturn, so it certainly was a success. See pictures of it here.

Don't forget: this Friday, June 10, another blockbuster movie, "The Fifth Element" will be shown with astronomy graduate student Jeff Andrews leading a discussion on the science truth and falsehoods present in the film.