April 19: Extragalactic FM

On Friday, April 19th, Ph.D. candidate Destry Saul shared with us the wonders of the Universe as seen  in the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. He introduced the audience to some of his favorite radio images taken with his favorite radio telescopes. Radio telescopes can either be single dish (like Arecibo or Parkes) or arrays (like the VLA or the VLBA). Objects that emit in the radio include galaxies, supernova remnants, and pulsars. Destry's favorite objects include the closest and most powerful radio source, Cygnus A, and the brightest radio supernova remnant, Casseopeia A.

Unfortunately, the skies were quite cloudy, so observing was replaced by tours of our rooftop observatory given by graduate students Adrian Price-Whelan and Steph Douglas. Audience members were also treated to a guided viewing of our 3D Wall by undergraduate Gladys Velez-Caicedo, and a discussion of the other end of the electromagnetic spectrum, X-ray astronomy, by graduate student Yuan Li.

We hope to see you at our next event on May 3rd.

--Summer Ash (Director of Outreach)

April 13: History of Astronomy and Navigation

On April 13, 260 people crowded a lecture hall in Pupin Physics Laboratories to hear Brandon Horn, graduate student in the Department of Astronomy, gave a lecture on the history of astronomy, navigation, geodesy, and photometry. Wowing the crowd with a zooming presentation, Brandon gave us a tour of major astronomical discoveries starting with the size of the Earth and moving all the way up to the expanding universe. People stayed after the talk to ask questions and explore the universe of Astronomy Picture of the Day in the lecture hall while others headed up the roof for a beautiful, clear view of the heavens.

On the roof, five volunteers helped visitors look at Mars, the Moon, the globular cluster M3, and the Orion Nebula. We were very fortunate to have such a clear view of the night skies and the huge number of visitors seemed to attest to how exciting it was to be able to use the observatories to their fullest capacity. Additionally, visitors who wanted to avoid the crowds could catch a show in our 3D theater where graduate student Yuan Li showed some videos about black holes and pulsars that the audience enjoyed. In all, a fun time was had by all.

--Josh