General Meeting – April 2019

6:30 pm – Introductory Presentation

Title:  Seasonal Night Sky Objects

Speaker:  Mary Turner

Mary Turner, TAAA’s appointed Chief Observer, takes us on a tour of the spring night sky. As usual in her popular talks, Mary’s uses astronomical data, images, and mythology to bring seasonal changes in the sky to life.

7:30 pm – Main Presentation

Title:  An Introduction to Slit-less Grating Spectroscopy

Speaker:  Rhode Island native and retired Astronomy and Physics Professor David Iadevaia, has taught middle school/high school physical science/physics up through university astronomy. In 1983, he became Instrument Specialist for the Echelle spectrograph at the MMT on Mt. Hopkins. The next year, he began a 30-year teaching career at Pima Community College. His accomplishments there include designing the Professor Pima Portable Planetarium Program, and establishing Pima’s East Campus Observatory, the first teaching observatory in Arizona. In 1986, he received the Tucson Trade Bureau Outstanding Faculty Award. David has been a lifelong amateur astronomer and as a retiree he’s returning to his astronomy roots.

David will present an introduction to low resolution, slit-less grating spectroscopy. He’ll begin with a brief overview of the nature of light with such concepts as Wien’s Law and the Doppler Effect as they apply to spectroscopy. Spectra taken with a slit-less grating spectroscope will be shown, along with an explanation of how to interpret the data in spectra. David will talk about the equipment needed to capture spectra, and the software available to reduce a spectrum’s data for research. A brief overview of the growing international community of spectroscopists will be included.