October 29 Outreach Report

Postdoc Josh Peek gave an excellent lecture on Friday, October 29,
titled "Outer Space" to about 250 visitors. We took a tour of space
near to us and far away as Josh proved outer space isn't just "space"
but rather that most of the atoms in the universe are in the form of
soot and gas hiding in between planets, stars, and galaxies. The
audience was treated to pictures and explanations of the many forms
this matter can take. These include cold clumps of gas and dust which
block out the light coming from behind them and can sometimes form new
stars, as well as hot gas in clusters which can rip a galaxy's gas
right out of it. After the lecture many people were able to observe
Alberio, the double cluster, and Jupiter and four of it's moons. In
addition to observing, guests were also able to watch a 3D wall
presentation on Mars by Cameron Hummels, or to watch the film Cosmic
Collisions. Thanks to all our visitors and to all the volunteers for a
great night!

Astronomy Public Lecture: Oct. 15

Professor Kathryn Johnston gave a great lecture on Friday, October 17, about how galaxies collide with each other. With the help of simulations and a comparison to observations she explained that collisions among galaxies are common in the universe, commenting that many galaxies are in fact expected to be the remnants of galaxy mergers billions of years ago. Applying these concepts to our own galaxy, she presented some of her own research searching in the Milky Way for the tell-tale signs of recent galactic mergers: tidal streams. While in fact, through careful astronomy, we do see several tidal streams, Prof. Johnston showed that, through simulations, we expect our galaxy to merge with dozens of smaller, dwarf galaxies. She ended the talk with a video showing a simulation of what is expected to happen in a few billion years when our galaxy collides with our closest major galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy.

Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy so no observing was possible, but one of our graduate students, Jana Grcevich, displayed 3D videos with our dual projector setup. Another graduate student, Josh Schroeder, took visitors on a tour of our telescopes and explained their history. We also had two mini-lectures about techniques used to find planets in other solar systems, and planetary nebulae. From the 120+ visitors that enjoyed Kathryn's talk, we received a great deal of excitement to come back in the future, especially during clear weather. Thanks also, to the 5+ volunteers that made the event possible!

Yeshiva University Outreach

On October 7 at 7:30 pm, about 30 students from the Chemistry Clubs at Yeshiva University visited the Astronomy Department to get a tour of the heavens. Graduate student, Jana Grcevic gave a presentation on color and chemistry of the heavens as well as a view of our 3D movie theater. Then, we proceeded up to the roof to get views of Jupiter, Alberio, and the Ring Nebula.

Harlem Science Fair

125th St & Powell Blvd on October 2nd

October 1: The History of Martian Exploration

On the 1st of October Jeff Andrews presented a talk on the history of Martian exploration. The crowd were very receptive and interested and the majority of the hundred or so, stayed for the entire nights activities. While there were a few technical and practical glitches, the crew were able to improvise their way to solutions. Special mention should go to Yuan and Brandon for going above and beyond their roles.

The crowd responded well to the background music played before the event during the introductory slideshow explaining the program for the night. I think that this is a nice professional touch that should be continued. Observing was very successful on the roof, as were the two informal presentations in the lecture theatre.

Black Hole Beats and Fresh Autumn Stars

This past Friday (Sep 17) we held an exciting lecture by Professor Janna Levin. She explained the amazing consequences of merging black holes as dictated by General Relativity. The disruptions in spacetime generated by these encounters produce a bizarre kind of music that we may finally tune into with the next generation of gravitational wave detectors.

Following the lecture, most of the audience headed up to the roof of Pupin to take in the beautifully clear evening sky. While volunteers offered the usual celestial close-up views through three telescopes (showing the Moon, Jupiter, Uranus, and the Double Cluster), Josh gave tours of the newly visible Autumn constellations, and down in the lecture hall three more volunteers narrated a remote observing session with a telescope in the Canary Islands.

By all accounts it was a great start to our new season of Friday night events.

-Neil

Sept. 3: Frits Paerels Talk and Remote Observing

On Friday, Sept. 3 some 140 people attended a lecture by Dr. Frits Paerels about missing matter in the universe. Dr. Paerels described how astronomers came to understand that most of the matter in the universe was unaccounted for. Showing beautiful images of clusters of galaxies and simulations of the large-scale structure of the universe, Dr. Paerels described how only 4% of the universe was made out of normal matter and how fully 50% of it hasn't yet been detected.

After this great talk, we were treated to a remote observation by graduate students Neil Zimmerman and Andrew Brown who imaged Stephan's Quintet using the website slooh.com. These observations were a big hit with our regular visitors. Other newcomers were treated to a tour of the observatory on the roof with an exhortation to return soon!