Exclusively for AAC members!
AAC has organized a dark sky star party at one of the darkest skies on the east coast!
Sunset is 5:33 pm. Moon rise is at 1:10 am Sunday.
Arrive at least one hour before sunset for setup and to get familiar with the observing field before dark.
Please review the Star Party etiquette for Chiefland. http://shorturl.at/cgkMO
You need to register to attend and receive directions to observing field.
Event Alerts - Members please register to attend. A "GO" or "NO GO" will be emailed to registrants by noon the day of the event. Your need to be registered for me to send you updates
The Far Out Journal Club invites you to join us for an online conversation with multi-talented actor, writer, musician, and amateur astronomer, Tim Russ
From the outer limits of the Milky Way, the Alachua Astronomy Club has started the Far Out Journal Club. Produced by Rich Russin and hosted by past president Terry Smiljanich, the goal is to have a personal, in-depth visit with the authors, artists, musicians, and other cultural icons who bring us the vast world of cultural science and science fiction. The host for this program will be James Albury, Director of the Santa Fe College Planetarium.
In this episode we welcome Tim Russ, who many will recognize from his role as Lieutenant Commander Tuvok on Star Trek:Voyager.
Biography:
TIM RUSS has been working within the entertainment industry for over thirty years. His talents encompass a wide spectrum of the performing arts including composing, music (guitar & vocals), acting, writing, directing, voice-over and producing. Mr. Russ received his B.S. in Theater at St. Edward’s University Austin TX, and completed one year of post graduate work in theater at Illinois State University.
As an actor, Mr. Russ has worked in a cross section of feature film and television, including “KARMA,” “5TH PASSENGER,” “LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD,” “SPACEBALLS,” series regular roles on “THE HIGHWAYMAN,” “THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR,” “STAR TREK-VOYAGER,” “SAMANTHA WHO,” and “iCARLY.” He has also appeared in numerous stage plays including the original Los Angeles premiere of “DREAMGIRLS.”
Tim Russ has performed as a musician for over 40 years, playing rhythm, lead, and bass guitars, well as solo vocals. His musical talents are showcased on several CD’s currently distributed through iTunes and CD Baby.
As a writer/producer Mr. Russ currently shared the helm in the production of the feature, “EAST OF HOPE STREET,” which won “Best Feature Film”, and “Best Actress” on the festival circuit. He was also the recipient of the Sony Innovator’s Award for a commercial he produced entitled, “The Zone.
Mr. Russ has also been active in the TV/Film directing arena with credits including the television series, “STAR TREK: VOYAGER,” and the feature films, “LIFE ON THE ROCKS,” “JUNKIE,” “NIGHT AT THE SILENT MOVIE THEATER,” the pilot presentation “RENEGADES, " the award winning web series, "BLOOMERS,” and a collection of short stories he has written and directed entitled, “FRAME OF MIND," Volumes I & II. Mr. Russ has also received and EMMY AWARD for his directing on several commercials for the FBI.
Mr. Russ has expanded his performing talents to include voice-over. His recent V.O. credits include; Cartoon Network's, “SYM-BIONIC TITANS,” 6 audio books, a number of video games, and several radio commercials. He has also co-produced a musical children’s book and CD entitled, “BUGSTERS,” which won the National Parenting Award, and is featured on the playlist for the Fisher Price Mp3.
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://sfcollege.zoom.us/j/91733146162?pwd=Ib7KD0Sd1UKU8cbeUR0u7bxbOzmSOj.1
AAC Holiday Party.
REGISTRATION REQUESTED!
We will have a pot luck dinner. Please indicate what food dish you will bring, just click on the sign up sheet below.
AAC will be providing ham, turkey, coffee, tea, and water. BYOB is allowed.
Rich Russin has again created his famous Far Out Space Quiz!
Holiday Pot Luck Sign Up Sheet
This year's party will be located at:
The Village at Gainesville
Additional information will be in your confirmation email when you register.
Agenda:
7:00 - 7:15 General Meeting & Announcements 7:15 - 7:30 Short topic presentation by a club member
7:30 - 7:45 Refreshment break
7:45 - Public Presentation
Speaker: Dr. Jeff Dror, Assistant Physics Professor, UF
Title: Gravitational Wave Detection
Abstract:
Understanding the evolution of the Universe requires finding particles ejected during different epochs. We have already detected two classes of such cosmic fossils: microwave photons and light nuclei. While we have learned a great deal from these discoveries, they have left significant gaps in our knowledge of the cosmic history since the Big Bang. Dr. Dror’s presentation will focus on detecting new cosmic fossils in the form of axions and gravitational waves.
About the Speaker:
UF Physics Department, 2023-present
UC Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, (Post Doc), 2020-2023
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2017-2020
Research Interests:
In his research, Dr. Dror focuses on gravitational wave detection in the nHz regime (10-1000 billion times lower frequency than those detected by the LIGO experiment). The most promising way to detect such gravitational waves is by tracking the arrival times of light pulses from nearby stars known as pulsars. There is an ongoing international effort to detect a signal in the nHz range, and his work focuses on extending their sensitivity to the pHz-nHz regime. This requires developing new ways to analyze the pulsar light data.
7:00 - 7:15 General Meeting & Announcements 7:15 - 7:30 Members Corner:
Speaker: James Albury, Planetarium Director and host of the YouTube Series "The Sky Above Us"
Topic: TBD
Join James Albury, host of the YouTube astronomy program "The Sky Above Us" (TheSkyAboveUs.org), and 2011-2019 co-host of the PBS TV Show "Star Gazers", as he takes you on a personally guided tour of our night sky, using our GOTO Chronos Space Simulator. Florida Skies is our weekly star show that familiarizes you with some of the popular constellations visible from sunset to sunrise, as well as the stories behind them. We'll also show you how and where in the sky you can find the brightest planets.
Speaker: Dr. Adam Ginsburg, Associate Professor, UF
Title: Molecular Interstellar Medium
He studies the formation of the most massive stars and how their formation process affects their neighbors, with the aim of understanding what physical processes control the stellar initial mass function. He uses primarily radio and millimeter telescopes to measure the molecular interstellar medium, which is the gas phase from which stars form. Turbulence and chemistry are the two most important and least understood processes that affect both how the stars form and how we detect their birth environments, so his research includes these fields by necessity. He is also interested in the maintenance and development of new tools to facilitate observational astronomy and comparison between simulations and observations.
Speaker: Dr. Eric Perlman
Title: Active Galactic Nuclei
Dr. Perlman came to Florida Tech in 2007 after postdoctoral fellowships at Goddard Space Flight Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute, as well as research staff and research faculty positions at the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Dr. Perlman is an observational astrophysicist whose research concentrates on the nuclei of galaxies, their physics and evolution, particularly those in which the central black hole has a large rate of accretion and is abnormally active (the so-called active galactic nuclei). He was a member of the AGN science team for CanariCam, a first-light instrument for the Gran Telescopio Canarias, and is now a science team member for MIRADAS, one of the GTC's third-generation instruments.
Dr. Perlman specializes in the structure and physics of high-velocity outflows from compact objects and AGN, particularly, jets. He has a strong interest in clusters of galaxies, galactic activity in clusters and observational cosmology. He has taken an active interest in the intersection of quantum gravity and astrophysics. He takes a multiwaveband approach to these subjects, and has worked in virtually every energy range from the radio through gamma-rays. He is interested in the process of accretion, including events that can temporarily make black holes active (tidal disruption events). He pursues interests in astrobiology, particularly the impact of active black holes on habitable planets.
