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SMCAS Monthly Meeting
December 4 at 7:30
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There will be no SMCAS General Meeting in January, 2010 |
College of San Mateo
1700 West Hillsdale Blvd., Bldg 36-100 ,
San
Mateo, California
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CSM
Astronomy website
In the Mail and In
the eMail
Season's Greetings!
The Event Horizon for January is available online at http://www.smcas.
com/newsletter/
. The January calendar is also available online.
There will be no meeting or public Planetarium show in January. SMCAS
members have been invited to attend the Peninsula Astronomical Society's meeting
on January 8th.
There will be Star Parties at Crestview Park on January 9th and 16th and Jazz
Under the Stars on January 23d.
SMCAS will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2010. If you have
documents, pictures or stories about the earlier years of SMCAS, please let me
know.
Ed Pieret
President, SMCAS
The December 2009 Event Horizon is available on our website at
http://www.smcas.
com/newsletter/
newsletters/
.
The hardcopy will be mailed next week.
Our Annual Potluck Holliday Party has been scheduled for December 12
from 7:00PM to 10:00PM at Our Redeemer's Lutheran Church, 609 Southwood
Drive at in South San Francisco. All members are invited to attend and
to bring their families. I hope to see you all there. Details can be
found in the Event Horizon and on our website at http://www.smcas.
com/events/
smcas_annual_
holliday_
party/.
I'd like to wish you a happy Thanksgiving and I look forward to seeing
you at our December 4th meeting.
Ed Pieret
EPieret zat Comcast.
net
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Table of Contents
Directions to College of
San Mateo
Star Parties at
Crestview Park
Events and Club News
Other Astronomy Events in Our Area
SMCAS Monthly Calendar
Club Websites, Membership Application
SMCAS patches on sale
Update, November 30
New nova discovered
Update, December 5
The weather forecasts look good for the scheduled Star Party at Crestview
Park this evening, December 5, 2009.
We will be setting up telescopes at about 5:00PM and observing should start
about 6:00PM. If you are setting up your telescopes, need help with a telescope
or are just interested in learning about telescope manufacturers and options,
come at 5:00PM. If you are just interested in observing Jupiter and the other
objects in the autumn sky, come after 6:00PM but not too late - it will be cold
and the astronomers will probably quit early.
Directions can be found at http://www.smcas.
com/events/
directions/
crestview_
park/ and more details at http://www.smcas.
com/events/
crestview_
park/.
Remember to dress warmly.
Ed Pieret
President, SMCAS
Update, December 28, 2009
Final entry for December Newsletter
Crestview Star
Parties
Number of people in attendance
subject to weather.
Crestview 2005/7 Sun Chart
Scobee Star Chart
Scobee
Planetarium
The Solar System Live
Saturdays - Dusk - 10pm
December 12 & 19
January 9 & 16 - February 6 & 13 - March 6 & 13
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Come out and see
how many different things you can
identify
in the night sky!
Bring
your binoculars, telescopes, star guides, and lounge chairs for some informal
star gazing at Crestview Park. Dress warmly, wear a hat. Cars should arrive before dark so that headlights don't affect people's dark
adaptation. Bring small flashlights only, with the lens covered with red
cellophane or red balloon. Please don't touch a telescope without permission.
And parents, please watch your children.
Directions to Crestview Park: Take Hwy 101 or El Camino to Brittan Avenue in
San Carlos, and turn west (right from El Camino). From El Camino, follow Brittan
about 2.3 miles to the intersection with Crestview Drive. From Alameda, go about
1.4 miles to Crestview. Turn right on Crestview. A small sign saying "Crestview
Park" is a half-block ahead on the right.
Look to the left for the park entry road, a small street between houses #998 and 1000.
If after dark, please park on Crestview to avoid disturbing the observing with
headlight glare.
From Highway 280 to Edgewood Road. Go east toward the Bay about 0.8 miles. Left on
Crestview Drive. Go 0.5 miles uphill to the intersection with Brittan Avenue. Go one
short block to the park entrance on the left.
Generally the first star party is around the 3/4
moon and the second party is a week later (around the new moon). Our
experience is that 4 or 5 days after the full moon the moon rises late
enough that it won't bother observing. Some months the calendar and the and
the moon phases give us a star party with a new moon or at least less than a
quarter moon. This is OK because we all like to do a little moon observing
once in a while. Sometimes we even call it a moon party.
Leroy Amen
Crestview Park is at W122° 17', N37° 29'
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REACH FOR THE STARS AT CSM!
With its planetarium, variety of astronomy courses, top-notch faculty,
and special events such as Star Parties, when the College partners with the
San Mateo County Astronomical Society...or with CSM's many A.A., A.S., and
certificate programs, its scenic and historic campus, the ease with which
you can sign up for classes online as a first-time or returning student...
The possibilities are astronomical.
COLLEGE OF SAN MATEO. Visit us on the web at http://gocsm.net
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Astronomy Events in Our Area
( Edited for December )
Bay
Astro, Ken L's Event List
IYA2009
at Berkeley
This UC Berkeley Speaker series for the International Year of Astronomy 2009
Public Talks,
Hosted by the UC Berkeley Astronomy
Department
http://astro.berkeley.edu/~scroft/iya/
Saturday, December 19, 2009: "Star Formation Through Radio Eyes"
Dean
Lectures
California
Academy of Sciences
https://www.calacademy.org/event_tickets/.
____________________________________
Benjamin Dean Lecture Series in Astronomy
Morrison Planetarium
California Academy of Sciences
55 Concourse Drive
San Francisco, CA 94118
415-379-8000
deanseries@calacademy.org
http://www.calacademy.org/events/index.php
Dear Benjamin Dean Lecture Fans
I wanted to send you a quick note about our Benjamin Dean Lecture that will be
held here in our Planetarium one week from today at 7:30pm. I hope you will be
able to join us. Details below...
Title: Benjamin Dean Lecture - At Saturn
Speaker: Dr. Carolyn Porco, Director of CICLOPS, Space Science Institute,
Boulder, CO Date:Monday, December 7th at 7:30 pm
Topic:
For seven years, the Cassini spacecraft and its Huygens probe traveled invisible
interplanetary roads to the place we call Saturn. Their successful entry into
orbit, the mythic landing of Huygens on the cold, dark equatorial plains of
Titan, and Cassini's subsequent explorations of the Saturnian environment are
already the stuff of legend. What they have shown us, and the images they have
collected, have revolutionized our views of this very alien planetary system and
the planetary processes responsible for its configuration.
Reservations:
Ticket prices: Adults $12, Seniors $10, Academy members $6. Seating is
limited.
To purchase tickets in advance, call 800-794-7576 or Buy online at: http://bit.ly/5B94u8
Best,
Gary Sharlow
Special Programs Coordinator
California Academy of Sciences
SLAC Physics
Lecture Series at Stanford Linear Accelerator
http://www.slac.
stanford.
edu/welcome/
location.
html (how to get to SLAC)
Silicon
Valley Astronomy Lecture Series
Foothill College
Los Altos Hills, CA
Public Lecture, Open to Everyone
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Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 7 pm:
The Search for Intelligent Life Among the Stars:
New Strategies
Dr. Seth Shostak, SETI Institute
part of the 11th Annual Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures
in the Smithwick Theater, Foothill College,
El Monte Road and Freeway 280,
in Los Altos Hills, California.
Free and open to the public.
Parking on campus costs $2 and
you should leave some time to get a parking sticker.
Call the series hot-line at 650-949-7888 for
more information and driving directions.
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A half-century ago, astronomers began trying to "eavesdrop" for
radio
messages from nearby star systems. This was the start of the
scientific SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) program,
looking for other civilizations in the universe. The discovery of
over 400 planets around other stars (including a number super-Earths)
has provided a new foundation for this search. However, today, SETI
researchers continue to point their telescopes at individual stars,
on the assumption that technically advanced societies will inhabit a
watery world like our own. Seth Shostak will describe these
searches, but then ask a controversial question: Are these familiar
-- and nearby -- star systems the only (or even the best) places to
look for signals? He will go on to discuss some novel ideas for how
we might pursue the hunt for "cosmic company" and why its possible
that we might find evidence of sophisticated intelligence out there
within only a few decades.
Seth Shostak is Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute, in Mountain
View, California and one of the best public lecturers in astronomy
today. If you have never heard one of his energetic and humorous
talks, you are in for a treat. He appears regularly on national
radio and television programs, hosts his own syndicated radio show
called "Are We Alone?" (broadcast locally on KALW each week), and
has
written hundreds of popular magazine and web articles. He has an
undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton University, and a
doctorate in astronomy from the California Institute of
Technology. He lectures on astronomy and other subjects at Stanford
and other venues in the Bay Area, and for the last six years, has
been a Distinguished Speaker for the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics. His most recent book is "Confessions
of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence" (National Geographic).
No background in science will be required for
this talk. Seating is first come, first served.
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The lectures are co-sponsored by:
* NASA Ames Research Center
* The Foothill College Astronomy Program
* The Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
* The SETI Institute
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Past Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are now available
in MP3 format at:
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast/index.html
Seti Seminar Series
The colloquiums are free and open to the public, and run from
noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI
Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California.
UC Berkeley's Lawrence
Hall of Science
http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org
Lick Observatory
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Plan to arrive after noon and before 3 PM for best access to Public
Areas.
This is an all day trip climbing to
4200 feet on the historic
Mount Hamilton Road, Route 130.
Alum Rock off of 101 or 680.
Please don't pass bicyclists
on the blind curves.
Gift Shop
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Mt Tam
Enthusiasts-
Mt Tam , website: mttam.net
Exploratorium in San Francisco
http://www.exploratorium.edu/
The Tech Museum, downtown
San Jose
Western
Amateur Astronomers
Peninsula Astronomical Society
OTHER CLUBS & EVENTS - For regularly-updated information on other
astronomical organizations and events, we refer you to the website of the
Astronomical Association of Northern California;
www.aanc-astronomy.orgJane H J on your I-Pod,
http://education.jpl.nasa.gov/amateurastronomy/index.html
For those of you with an interest in Java Programs and/or
extra-solar planet search see:
http://oklo.org/?page_id=86
This is a forum run by students and instructors at
Lick Observatory concerning the reduction of extra-solar
radial velocity data. Update at: http://www.oklo.org/
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Astronomical Society of the Pacific
ASP Website
U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey,
Public Programs:
http://online.wr.usgs.gov/calendar/
The Intel Museum
Computer History Museum
For those familiar with the streets of the SF Mission,
Bay Area Science Cafe
http://www.sciencecafesf.com/
http://www.atlascafe.net/
Lockheed
Martin Palo Alto Colloquia
There will be no more Colloquia until 2010.
NASA Ames Research Center
The NASA Exploration Center is open to the public free of charge. For information about the Exploration Center, please visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/home/exploration.html
To learn about other events hosted by NASA Ames, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/events/index.html
More Exploration Center information on
this website.
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Astronomy at College of San Mateo
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College of San Mateo Maps
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Webmaster's
Links
Return to smcas.htm
SMCAS Patches
The SMCAS patches
are on sale for six dollars each.
Actual diameter is 9 centimeters or
about 3 1/2 inches.
Galactic Explosions and the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope
In this talk, Eduardo do Couto e Silva will explain that
while the night sky appears calm, it is in fact populated by colossal
explosions and cosmic conflagrations. In 1967, a US satellite monitoring
nuclear explosions suddenly recorded a huge burst of energy coming from space.
No one had any idea of what this could be, nothing like this had ever been
seen before. The extraordinary power of this event, since named a gamma-ray
burst, signaled that there were vast explosions taking place out in the
universe and the hunt was on to find an explanation. Equally amazing in their
power and their influence are supernova explosions. The collapse of massive
stars make for some of the most dramatic of all events in our universe.
Dr. do Couto e Silva will explain the origin of such explosions, and show
results from the space mission intended to explore such explosions: the
Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope.
Speaker Biography:
Eduardo do Couto e Silva was
born and educated in Brasilia, Brazil. He was granted a PhD from Indiana
University by conducting research on the physics of B mesons in the European
Laboratory for High Energy Physics (CERN) located at the border between France
and Switzerland. After being awarded a CERN Fellowship he joined an experiment
to search for neutrino oscillations. In 1999, he moved to Stanford University
in 1999 to work on high energy astrophysics and he joined the Fermi Gamma Space
Telescope (formerly GLAST) project. Since then he has been playing prominent
roles in many areas of the development of the Fermi Telescope. Throughout
his career he designed, built and tested detectors for high energy physics and
high energy astrophysics. He is an Experimental Physicist in the Kavli
Institute for Particle Astrophysics. His principal interests lie in high
energy astrophysics, specially at gamma ray energies. He is often involved in
outreach activities.
Update, Dec 2, 2009
Everyone,
We have a truly high-energy astrophysicist as guest speaker for our December
4th general meeting of the San Mateo County Astronomical Society at the CSM
Planetarium. Dr. do Couto e Silva will give us an excellent talk about
high-energy astrophysics - 'The Violent Universe Seen Through the Fermi
Gamma Ray Space Telescope' - delivered in his high-energy speaking style!
Come early to make sure you get your seats for the most explosive show in
town this Friday!
Please invite your interested friends and family, and forward this note to
any other people you think may be interested. As always, our meetings are
free, open to the general public, and parking is free.
Speaker: Dr. Eduardo do Couto e Silva, Experimental Physicist, SLAC
Topic: The Violent Universe Seen Through the Fermi Gamma Ray Space
Telescope
Where: SMCAS general meeting Friday, Dec 4th
General meeting starts at 7:30pm in the CSM Planetarium, followed by the
presentation.
Full presentation information at:
http://www.smcas.
com/events/
meetings/
upcoming_
meetings/
Parking is free in the well lighted parking lot 7, immediately adjacent to
the planetarium building. Directions at:
http://www.smcas.
com/events/
directions/
activities_
at_csm/
Regards,
Marion
San Mateo County Astronomical Society
http://www.smcas.
com/
Review of December 4 meeting by Bob Fies
Stanford teaching
expertise in a one room school house setting.
Cost per student, zero.
