Public Lecture and Stargazing: March 26, 2010

Tonight's event from 8 to 10pm on Friday, March 26th, was a great time for everyone. Over 60 people attended a lecture by Grad Student Yuan Li entitled "Shaping Galaxies with Supermassive Black Holes". Yuan discussed first what a black hole is, and then explained how SMBHs are almost always found at the center of galaxies. She explained the M-sigma relation in an amazingly understandable way and provided some ideas about what might cause this correlation, including a great movie of a galaxy merger. Yuan's lecture was interesting and elicited a huge number of questions from the people in attendance.

The weather was hazy, with views of Mars and the Moon. Later in the evening it cleared up a little more, and Mizor and Alchor were observed as well. The 13th floor classroom was put to new use with a movie screening by Lia Corrales of Tyler Noerdgen's investigation of the night sky in national parks. A compelling section of his work, called "Sky Above, Earth Below" , which details light pollution at so-called dark sky sights, was shown.

We got some press coverage of last night's event. Read it now in the Columbia Spectator.

March 5, 2010: Gamma-ray bursts

We had an exciting evening on Friday March 5 from 7 to 9 pm with about 60 visitors to Pupin Hall and Rutherfurd Observatory. John Ruan, a Columbia College Senior in the Department of Astronomy (going on to graduate school next year) gave a fantastic lecture about gamma-ray bursts. Among the most amusing anecdotes he gave was the number of Coca-colas all of humanity would need to drink over the age of the universe in order to equal the amount of energy given off by one gamma-ray burst. The answer was a number too large to count in your lifetime!

Although it was hazy, the skies were clear enough to get a peak at Mars. The Red Planet is on a close approach to the Earth right now (an event that happens approximately once every two years) and so our view of it is getting to be pretty good. Even a small pair of binoculars can reveal that it is a disk and a moderately powered telescope can resolve the white polar ice caps! Definitely worth a look.

Exoplanet Hunting Techniques!

Summer Ash gave an amazing talk last night entitled: "Galactic Planet Hunting." She discussed the different techniques astronomers are using to find planets outside of our solar system, from looking at the wobble of the planet's host star, to looking at the drop of light that occurs when a planet eclipses its host star, and finally to looking for the planet directly. Additionally, we gave away some NASA swag, we had the 3D wall show and a flythrough the Solar System, and we had a few slideshows (Astronomy Picture of the Day and the discovery of water on the Moon).

Unfortunately, the weather was uncooperative. It was clear when the lecture began but quickly became totally overcast for the observing period. However, we were able to give several groups of people a tour of the telescopes along with some history and background as to how they work.

Thanks to the 100 attendees and several volunteer graduate students!

--Cameron

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 -