Constellation of the Month:

Delphinus and Equuleus

Presenter:  Connor Justice

Connor Justice will start the night with the southern constellation Delphinus and Equuleus.

Main Presentation:

Star Hopping

Presenter:  Doug Smith

For our main topic, Doug Smith will be teaching the basics of Star Hopping.

6:30 pm – Introductory Presentation

Title:  Two Talks: Dark Sky NM Observatory and Bylaw Changes

Speaker 1: TAAA member Gregg Ruppel will talk about his Dark Sky New Mexico Observatory near Animas, NM.

Speaker 2: TAAA member Doug Smith will provide information about two suggested TAAA Bylaws changes.

7:30 pm – Main Presentation

Title:  Testing Einstein’s Gravity by Taking Photographs of Black Holes

Speaker:  Pierre Christian is a postdoc at the University of Arizona, where he is the Steward Prize Fellow in theoretical and computational astrophysics. Previously, he earned his doctorate from Harvard University, where he worked on black hole astrophysics. At UA, he is interested in using black holes to study gravitational physics. He is a member of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, a worldwide scientific effort to take resolved images of black holes.

Pierre will describe the recent effort of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration in taking a high-resolution image of the black hole at the center of supergiant galaxy M87. He will first explain what a black hole is according to Einstein’s gravitational theory of general relativity. Then he will describe how a worldwide array of radio telescopes was used to capture an image of a black hole, and how such experiments can be used to test our understanding of gravity.

NOTICE – NEW LOCATION!

Constellation of the Month:

Telescopium

Presenter:  Ralph Means

Because this didn’t end up happening last month, Ralph Means will start the night with the southern constellation Telescopium.

Main Presentation:

Choose an Newtonian Telescope

Presenter:  Alan Kleuse

For our main topic, Alan Kleuse will be showing us how to Choose an Newtonian Telescope.

Meeting Location

More About Location:  This location is one block East of Country Club and one block South of Speedway Boulevard.

Parking:  You may parallel park on the street or there is a small amount of parking on the South side of the Ward 6 building. You may also park in the south side of the Walgreen’s Parking lot (permission given by Walgreens).

Getting to Room:  The front door is required to be locked during off hours, therefore enter the building on the SOUTH side (back). AFSIG will be meeting in the EAST room.

NOTICE – NEW SUMMER LOCATION!

6:30 pm – Introductory Presentation

Title:  Two Talks: Personal Observatory and CAC Update

Speaker 1:  David Klein, TAAA member, amateur astronomy and astrophotographer, will talk about developing and running his personal observatory in Tucson. His New World Observatory has a fully-automated Exploradome.

Speaker 2:  Ed Foley, current board member at large and former Treasurer of TAAA will share an update on TAAA’s Gateway to the Galaxy capital campaign and building project at our dark site Chiricahua Complex (CAC).

7:30 pm – Main Presentation

Title:  From Tucson to the Moon (And Beyond)

Speaker:  Dr. William Hartmann is a noted planetary scientist, artist, and writer. He received his B.S. in physics from Pennsylvania State University and his M.S. in geology and PhD in astronomy from the University of Arizona. He is Senior Scientist Emeritus at Planetary Science Institute in Tucson; the author of several books, including science text books, popular science nonfiction, and novels; and an artist with paintings displayed at the National Air & Space Museum. For this presentation, Dr. Hartman will focus on stories from his work during the Apollo years at UA’s Lunar & Planetary Lab, as well as his current and future projects.

Dr. Hartmann will take us on a journey of exploration, presenting stories from his days as an amateur astronomer and later a grad student under Dr. Gerard Kuiper at UA’s Lunar & Planetary Lab, and including his own discoveries and theories about the moon. He will also talk about his involvement in the origin of Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii in the ‘60s, his 30 years of experience on imaging teams for Mars orbiter missions, his development of a dating process for Solar System objects, and much more. This is sure to be a fascinating talk.