Our speaker will be attending in person, please try to attend in person too!
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:
Jerry Cheney, PhD, OD
Alachua Astronomy Club
Topic: Planetary Nebulae
Abstract:
Planetary nebulae are among the most beautiful and interesting objects to be viewed by amateur astronomers. They are relatively small emission nebulae, representing the death throes of solar mass sized stars. They are misnamed, however, since they are unrelated to planets. We will explore the origin and structure of these objects and their abundance and distribution in the Milky Way. We also will discuss how to best view and photograph them.
About the Speaker:
Jerry Cheney grew up in southeast Texas. He earned his BS in Biology from Lamar University in 1976 and went on to earn his PhD in Biological Oceanography from the MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography in 1981. He then accepted a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he met and married his lovely wife, Marianne. They have two sons, Michael, an industrial engineer in Tampa, and Chris, currently in his final year of Pharmacy School at UF.
Dr. Cheney taught oceanography at the college level and continued his studies of the distribution of zooplankton in the North Atlantic, but after ten years he decided to change careers to become an optometrist. He graduated from the New England College of Optometry in 1994. The family moved to Florida in 1997 and eventually settled in Ocala, where Dr. Cheney practiced for fifteen years. He had the good fortune to be able to retire in 2014.
Dr. Cheney always had an interest in astronomy, and being a scientist by general nature and training, he has taken up astronomy as hobby in retirement He joined the Alachua Astronomy Club in 2015 and has served in the club’s administration for many years, including as president from 2017 to 2019. He teaches science courses, including astronomy, through Senior Learners in Ocala.
