The Far Out Journal Club invites you to join us for an online conversation with Author and Astrophysicist Emily Levesque
From the outer limits of the Milky Way, the Alachua Astronomy Club brings you 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 Far Out Journal Club is back for Season 2. Our first guest will be the award-winning author and astrophysicist Emily Levesque. Her book, The Last Stargazers is an instant classic. Her engaging dialogue takes you behind the scenes of some of the most powerful scopes in the world to reveal what it is really like to drive these machines.
Here is a quote from Kirkus Reviews: “From the lonely quiet of midnight stargazing to tall tales of wild bears loose in the observatory, The Last Stargazers is a love letter to astronomy and an affirmation of the crucial role humans can and must play in the future of scientific discovery.”
Please join us for a casual evening with program host Terry Smiljanich and guest Emily Levesque.
Emily Levesque Ph.D. Astronomy
Associate Professor, University of Washington
Biography:
I’m an astronomy professor at the University of Washington. My research combines observations and theory to explain how the largest (and weirdest!) stars in the universe evolve and die.
I was most recent a 2022-2023 Fulbright U.S. Scholar and a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow. I’ve received the American Astronomical Society’s 2023 Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award, the 2020 Newton Lacy Pierce prize, and the 2014 Annie Jump Cannon award. I’m also a 2019 Cottrell Scholar, a 2018 Kavli Fellow, and a 2017 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. From 2010 to 2015 I was a Hubble and Einstein postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I received my astronomy PhD at the University of Hawaii in 2010 and my S.B. in physics from MIT in 2006.
My first popular science book, The Last Stargazers, shares the tales and experiences of astronomical observing. I’ve also written two academic books: a professional text on red supergiants and a graduate textbook on stellar interiors and evolution written with co-author Henny J. G. L. M. Lamers.
The Last Stargazers
Join Zoom Meeting:
Http://bit.ly/FarOutJournalClub
https://sfcollege.zoom.us/j/91733146162?pwd=Ib7KD0Sd1UKU8cbeUR0u7bxbOzmSOj.1
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. Adam Ginsburg, Associate Professor, UF
Title: Molecular Interstellar Medium
Abstract:
About the Speaker:
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.
Research Interests:
Member only event! Dr. Francisco Reyes has invited AAC's members to a special Star Party at UF Rosemary Hill Observatory in Bronson. Sun sets at 7:41 pm.
Please arrive after 6:30 pm and 30 minutes before the sun sets to set up telescopes. You may drive up to 30" dome to setup scopes but MUST park in parking lot which is right of Dorm (Dorm on left side of street) or both sides of street (in grass/dirt) before Dorm.
Event Alerts - Members please register to attend. A "GO" or "NO GO" will be emailed to registrants by noon the day of the event.
Make Your Own Dew Shield & Star Party
Saturday, March 22nd
4:00PM - 11:30PM
Chiefland Astronomy Village
5450 NW 52nd Ct., Chiefland, Florida 32626
(This home made shield keeps dew off all night, no matter how wet)
Join us at Chiefland Astronomy Village for an interactive session on building dew shields, join us for dinner, and stick around for observing from the dark skies of Chiefland.
Dew Shield and Dinner Plans
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Pizza Dinner - ABC Pizza, please sign up and bring $10 to chip in.
**Bring your own beverages**
4:00pm: Arrival and Introduction to Chiefland Astronomy Village
4:15pm: Dew shield discussion and building
6:00pm: Dinner: ABC Pizza
Sunset: Observe and meet with fellow Astronomers
Exclusively for AAC members!
AAC has organized a dark sky star party at one of the darkest skies on the east coast!
Sunset is 7:42 pm.
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
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.
The Far Out Journal Club invites you to join us for an online conversation with Dennis Kois, Executive Director of Yerkes Observatory
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, curators, and other cultural icons who bring us the vast world of cultural science and science fiction.
Have you wondered what it would be like to run an observatory? In this episode we welcome Dennis Kois, Executive Director of Yerkes Observatory. Learn about the future of Yerkes Observatory and what is involved in managing it.
Dennis Kois
Executive Director
Yerkes Observatory / Yerkes Future Foundation
Dennis Kois is the Executive Director of Wisconsin’s Yerkes Observatory.
When the University of Chicago closed the observatory and transferred ownership to the newly-created Yerkes Future Foundation in 2020, Dennis became the first—and for a year, only—employee.
In the years since Dennis and the non-profit Foundation have raised more than $30 million to begin reimagining and restoring the 1897 observatory and fifty-acre Olmsted-designed landscape. That project is expected to take more than a decade, and some $87 million, to complete.
The observatory, still undergoing restoration, opened to the public in 2022 with a new mission and vision for the institution’s role in the future of astronomy. It has already attracted more than 100,000 visitors for programs, events and tours that bring together science, art and landscape in unexpected and thought-provoking ways.
Also in 2022 the observatory recruited Dr. Amanda Bauer from the Vera Rubin Observatory to become Deputy Director and Head of Science; the first woman to lead astronomy in Yerkes’ 128-year history. Today Yerkes has a full-time staff of 17.
Yerkes Observatory:
Yerkes Observatory with Geneva Lake in the background.
Albert Einstein with the Yerkes staff during his first visit to America in May, 1921. Visiting to lecture and defend his theory of relativity at Princeton, Einstein asked hist hosts to see two things during his trip--Niagara Falls, and the Observatory.
Astronomers Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Gerard Kuiper and Otto Struve outside Yerkes, ca.1940.
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. Zachary Slepian - UF
Title: Dark Energy
TBD
Speaker: Anna Metke - Space Resource Technologies
Title: Regolith Production
