October 5th - Slooh your way to the stars

What's in an acronym? Paige Godfrey, Slooh's research director, gave us an overview of the services offered by this online observatory. As of today, Slooh provides access to six telescopes. The majority, 5, are located in the Canary Islands. These include their largest instrument with an aperture of 0.5 meters (20 inch). Another telescope in Chile gives access to the many interesting objects located in the southern sky, and a solar scope equipped with a narrow band H-alpha filter allows observations of the solar chromosphere. By locating their observatories under some of the darkest skies, they facilitate access to high quality observations to individuals who would live in areas that suffer from light pollution (all cities).

Individuals can access the data obtained by the cameras attached to Slooh's telescopes. Paige showed some examples of work done by members of their community, from processed images, mosaics and gifs, to discoveries of new comets. Since the processing of astronomical data can have a rather steep learning curve, they're developing materials to make it easy for anyone to get started.

Paige explained how these resources allow schools to incorporate observational astronomy into their curriculum, and they're launching a specific program, AstroLab, with the support of the National Science Foundation.

As an illustrative example of how Astronomy can help answer some of the most fundamental questions we've asked ourselves through history, Paige introduced the use of Drake's equation, a way to quantify the number of communicating civilizations in a given volume, and applied it to the set of stars visible in a typical image taken with one of Slooh's telescopes. Turns out vulcanians may be out there for real!

-- Jose Zorrilla (graduate student)

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!

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

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

Micrometeorites and Clear Weather

Last night we had some beautiful weather for stargazing to accompany Lia Corrales' lecture entitled: "Meteorites: The Extraterrestrials in your Backyard." Lia talked about micrometeorites, very small particles originating in outer space which rain onto the surface of the Earth every day in significant amounts (estimated at 20,000 tons / year). She discussed ways where these come from, why they're important, and how you can find them in your own backyard. We followed her talk with a Galileoscope giveaway and lots of free NASA CDs for attendees.

We then opened up the telescopes for the attendees, both on the Roof and in front of Pupin. We observed Jupiter, the Owl Cluster (aka the ET Cluster), and the Andromeda Galaxy. Attendees also had the option of sticking around the lecture hall to see one of our various slideshows, watch Cosmic Collisions, or ask astronomers their burning questions at our Q&A. Overall it was one of our most successful nights of the year with over 200 people showing up to take advantage of this beautiful observing conditions.

--Cameron

Science Fiction and Water on the Moon

Jana Grcevich delivered one of the best lectures of the year last night entitled: "Science vs Fiction in Science Fiction". She had movie clips from Star Wars, Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and explanations as to why the physics in these scenes was not real science. The weather was very clear and the Moon was at first quarter, so we got great views of Jupiter, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Ring Nebula, the Double Cluster, and the Moon.

After the lecture, Cameron Hummels explained the recent discovery of water ice on the surface of the Moon and its implications for the future of space exploration. There was also a Q&A session and a slideshow on different types of spiral galaxies by Maureen Teyssier. Lastly, we showed parts of the old AMNH planetarium show, Cosmic Collisions to finish off the night.

Thanks to all of the 100 attendees who showed up. I hope we'll see you at the From Earth to the Universe photo exhibition on campus the week of October 5-October 13.

--Cameron

Aliens and Life in the Universe

Last night, Friday September 18, we had a great lecture by Maureen Teyssier about what extraterrestrial life might have in common with us. She detailed the chemistry necessary for life as we understand it, as well speculated on how the environments of other lifeforms might affect them.

Unfortunately, the weather started out pretty crummy at the beginning of the night with clouds covering the sky. At 9:00 however, the clouds thinned, and we were able to set up 4 of the telescopes on the roof to look at various targets. We viewed Jupiter, Albireo, Alcor & Mizar, and the Double Cluster. Because some thin cloud remained, we were unable to look at any fainter targets.

At the same time, keeping in line with the "life in the universe" theme, Andrew Brown ran a slideshow on the possibilities of life on Jupiter's moon, Europa. We also showed a space shuttle launch video, some time-lapse photography from the summit of Mauna Kea (one of the biggest observatories in the world), and took questions from the audience on a variety of astronomical topics.

Thanks to all of the 125 attendees who showed up, and I hope we'll see you next week!

--Cameron