November 2024 Newsletter
sbaU "first Friday"
meetingS
Please visit our free
meetings
in Fleischmann Auditorium or Farrand Hall at the
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
Early attendees may be able to catch a short
Gladwin Planetarium
show--but you must enter before 7pm!
First Friday, November 1, 2024,
gathering at 7pm for 730pm
General Meeting and
talk by Jennifer Ito, Ph.D. Westmont College, Asst. Prof
of Physics. Her topic title is: "Characterization
& Deployment of the PolarBear - 2b Receiver to Measure the
Cosmic Background Polarization" about millimeter wavelength
telescopes in the Atacama Desert in Chile used to test
the Big Bang Theory (not the TV show)!
Upcoming First Fridays:
-Dec 6, 2024 SBAU Members Kelly, Malone, Barman
Also, please check out some of our past meeting speakers and video
links below:
First Friday, October 4, 2024,
speaker was
Liam Brennan, UCSB Ph.D. candidate. He provided a dynamic exploration of particle physics for the groundbreaking work of the
LDMX (Light Dark Matter Experiment) and the
Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) collaboration at CERN.
Recorded:
SBAU Youtube: LIam Brennan talk
Some of his
research
First Friday, September 6, 2024,
speaker Dr. Joe Masiero,
research scientist at the
IPAC
research organization at Caltech, and the Deputy PI of the
NEOWISE mission. His talk was "Hunting
for hazardous asteroids using infrared light"
See talk:
Youtube-Hunting for hazardous asteroids
also see his "Tale
of Asteroid Families"
First Friday August 2, 2024 talk by
Nikolaus Volgenau, Ph.D.,
Las Cumbres
Observatory Operations Scientist regarding
"Ethanol in the Ether" describing how simple molecules -
including alcohol - form inside dark interstellar clouds, and
how astronomers detect them. His
research has been in star formation.
recorded at our Youtube
SB AstroUnit Channel
First Friday, July 5, 2024,
was an SBAU Potluck
at the Museum Broder
facility (across the
bridge).
The
evening was filled with good conversation, and tasty food. Event flyer:
events/July Potluck 2024 Rev4.pdf
Our
"Second Friday"*
meeting, June 14, 2024,
7pm,
was a presentation by our SBAU Outreach Coordinator,
Chuck McPartlin. The talk was titled "Lunatic Express - an
8 billion MPH tour of moons". Chuck has been with our club
since 1988 and is a winner of the
Las Cumbres Outreach Award (2012) from the Astronomical
Society of the Pacific. His shows are
always informative and entertaining.
See the recording:
https://youtu.be/tPv579erqhI?si=3CNwER8GPTvpfyJr
Our
"First Friday" May 3, 2024
was
Dr. Larry Martinez,
on
"Ensuring Outer Space Sustainability: Space Debris and
International Conflict".
Professor Emeritus of
Political Science at the California State University at Long
Beach (joined 1988) (Ph.D. in Political Science, UCSB 1984). He
also serves as a representative of the International Institute
of Space Law at meetings of the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of
Outer Space. Recorded:
https://youtu.be/72_cp5g4XQE?si=qVHQk5hN3UtkPu1t
https://www.larrymartinez.space/
Our
"Second Friday!!!" April 12, 2024
speaker was
Dr.
David Kary,
Citrus College, on
"The Race to Find Life in the
Universe".
Comparing the different ways astronomers
have of looking for alien life. Past Director of Astronomy Programs at our SBMNH and taught at
UCSB. Ph.D. in astrophysics from State
University of New York at Stony Brook, where his research
included how solar systems form.
Recording:
https://youtu.be/9cKF48fvSfQ?si=q-y_fqPdGeTwXhSB
Astronomy-professor-wins-award
Our
March 1, 2024 "First Friday"
meeting was a remote presentation by
"SkyMan" Bob Berman
with the title
"Where is the Universe".
Bob's book
"Zoom" that received a NY Times rave review.
Recording of Bob's March presentation
Our
First Friday, February 2, 2024
was a presentation by Tim Thompson, Mt. Wilson
Trustee and docent since 1981, on the
History of the Mt. Wilson Observatory. Tim, Air Force vet, with a Physics, M.S. from
CSU-LA, worked at JPL for 27 years in radioastronomy and Spitzer
infrared. He is also a tournament chess player! Recorded:
https://youtube/TimThompson-MtWilson
Our First Friday January 5, 2024
was a
presentation via Zoom by Dr. Mario Motta, MD with the topic
"Russel Porter, the founding of Stellafane 100 years ago, and
the birth of amatuer astronomy and telescope making" and his
subsequent recruitment to help design and build the 200 inch
Hale telescope. See the recording here:
https://youtube/Mario-Motta-Stellafane-Porter
https://stellafane.org/
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Past Meetings 2023
Our First Friday December 1, 2023 First Friday meeting
was an election of our the club's 2024 leaders and then
presentatinos from three members
about their favorite topics. David Feinberg talked about meteorites and tektites,
Mike
Hardwick discussed astrophotography, and Rex
Meach talked on
"Celestrial Navigation Oversimplified". Recorded:
https://youtube/December-Member-talks
Our
First Friday meeting November 3, 2023
was a presentation by Matt Povich, Ph.D., an
Astronomy professor at Cal Poly Pomona. His talk
title is: "Taking the Pulse of the Milky Way with
Citizen Science." He described his work mapping star
birth in our Milky Way Galaxy using multiwavelength surveys
across X-rays, visible light, infrared and radio. Recorded:
youtube/SBAstroUnit/MattPovich
Matt Povich Cal Poly Ponoma bio
Our
First Friday
meeting
October
6, 2023
did not go as planned due to
communication
problems.
But we found a very interesting
Youtube video
of our scheduled speaker,
Bob Berman,
to play for our Farrand Hall & Zoom
audience. He is an astronomer, and prolific science writer
for Astronomy.com, Almanac.com, and several books.
He will join us live at a later
date.
amazon.com/stores/author/B000AP9C6S
Our
First Friday meeting
September 1, 2023 was John Callas, Ph.D. Brown Univ, 1987,
with the topic: "The UNIVERSE is so LARGE & so DARK
- Living within the 95% of DARK MATTER & DARK ENERGY".
Works at JPL-NASA on advanced spacecraft propulsion, was Project
Manager Mars Opportunity, plus astrophysics instrumentation.
Organized May 2023 NASA Fundamental Physics Workshop here in SB.
see:
https://youtube/John-Callas-Dark-Matter
Our
First Friday
meeting
August 4, 2023,
was
a presentation by
Peter Love
on the
"James Webb Space Telescope: A Window
Into the Universe’s Past". Peter was Systems engineer
for JWST Mid-Infrared Instrument Detector at the Raytheon
Hyperspectral Module Program.
see:
https://youtube/Peter-Love-re-James-Webb
Our
First Friday
meeting
July 7, 2023
had a presentation by Sahil
Hegde of UCLA, a member of the
Furlanetto Group looking at the early universe "Cosmic
Dawn", Pop III low "metal" monster
stars.
Recorded:
https://youtube/Sahil-Hegde-Cosmic-Dawn
First Friday
meeting
June 2, 2023,
was a
presentation by
Dr. Robert "Ski" Antonucci, UCSB
Professor of
Astrophysics and Cosmology on
"Supermassive
Black Holes and Quasar behavior - still Mysterious to us"
[click - Youtube recording]. Also, see these articles:
-"Quasars
still defy explanation" by Robert Antonucci
-"An Identity Problem" UCSB - The Current
-Unified model of an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN)
Research of Robert Antonucci into AGN's
First Friday meeting May 5,
2023, was a
presentation by Joseph Farah, an award winning graduate student
at UCSB, also working with the Las Cumbres Observatory. He
is listed as the lead author of the paper describing the imaging
of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way using the Event
Horizon Telescope.
See more about Mr. Farah here:
https://josephfarah.co/#
and the imaging here:
https://lco.global/news/Milky-Way-black-hole
Meeting recorded:
SBAU
Youtube...skip first 20 minutes
First Friday meeting April 7, 2023,
presentation by UCLA Post-Doc Daniel Gilman, reaching us via
Zoom from Toronto, Canada. He will cover the latest
information on Dark Energy and Dark Matter detected using
Gravitational Lensing.
Meeting recorded:
SBAU Channel Daniel Gilman
First Friday meeting
March 3, 2023, 730pm, had a
presentation by Rafael Stavros Cottom, the Lead Astronomy
Programs Presenter at the SBMNH, & President, SBCC Astronomy
Club, reviewing research on the first generation of stars of
a specific group of metal-poor stars.
Meeting was not recorded.
First Friday Meeting, February 3, 2023,
presenter was
Joseph "Joe" Bassi, Phd, Fellow Royal Astronomical Society,
informing us about "Spaceweather". Meeting was not
recorded.
First Friday Meeting, January 6, 2023,
presenter was our Outreach Coordinator, Chuck McPartlin,
showing how asteroid
occultations provide information for NASA missions. See
the meeting and talk here:
https://youtu.be/svPnhShmeXE
MANY
MORE YouTube "SBAstroUnit" meeting videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU0r4RxzoyT_pwNcfN5aJsA/videos
Listing of some of our past speakers since 2008
|
Click for 93105 Wunderground weather
forecast
Fire & Smoke map:
https://fire.airnow.gov
PurpleAir pm2.5 etc sensors:
https://www.purpleair.com
Astrospheric forcast:
https://www.astrospheric.com/?Latitude=34.436450958252&Longitude=-119.88289642334
Clear Sky
Charts
Santa Barbara
Cachuma
Lake
Figueroa Lookout
___________________________________________________
*SBAU
"live"
Astro Hour*
MONDAYs 11AM
Hosted by our VP & DJ
Baron Ron Herron, Pres
JerryW lists some topics and
night sky info and RonH asks
questions answered by his
"brain trust" of JerryW,
TomW, BruceM,
TimC,
and ChuckMcP on this
weekly
video program
posted here:
Youtube SB AstroUnit channel
Home .
Refresh page at 11am (set a
reminder!) to catch the
start and enter your
questions in the Chat area.
_________________________________________________________
|
The
SBAU Forum
Register NOW at
http://www.sbau.org/sbauforum/
. Please also email the
webmaster@sbau.org that you would
like to join. The Public is more than welcome, start or join a conversation
with Santa Barbara area astronomy & telescope club
members. (Read your comments out loud before sending and see if
your mother would approve hearing that!)
Also see the
SBAU CLASSIFIEDS SECTION
.
__________________________________________________
SBAU
Major Public Outreaches:
-2nd
Tuesday Telescopes, Camino Real Marketplace
https://www.caminorealmarketplace.net
-2nd Saturday, Star Party, Museum of
Natural History
https://www.sbnature.org/palmer-observatory
-3rd Fridays, Star Party, Westmont College
https://www.westmont.edu/westmont-observatory
-See our Events Calendar
for all of the Outreach
SBAU Telescope Workshop
Tuesdays 7:30pm to 9:00pm
Only by Zoom Meetings!
Contact President to join
Learn
about
telescopes or astrophotography!
At the Telescope Workshop, we cover
types of mirrors and telescopes, but
also optics, cameras, and image processing software discussions.
We encourage novice astronomers to come, ask questions, and even
build, while advanced members are re-invited to attend
to show off their work, discuss telescope issues, to help out, or hang out!
See photo albums at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbaushots/albums .
Check
out
http://sbautw.blogspot.com
for a sample of past weekly Tuesday night sessions at the Broder
Building at the Museum.
___________________________________
Past Meetings 2022
First Friday "Members Night" Meeting, December 2, 2022, speakers
were SBAU President Jerry A. Wilson
on "My New
Backyard Observatory" and Vice President Ron Herron, "My
Astronomy Questions Needing Answers". The club's 2023 Slate of Officers
for SBAU Members was approved. See the recording:
https://youtu.be/nbSXrlILa0w
First Friday
November 4, 2022, speaker was Rory O. Bentley, Ph.D.,
on "The Extreme Realm of the
Milky Way's Core!"
See recording on our Youtube AstroUnit channel
https://youtu.be/sGfC3T5_9mc .
https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Rory-O-Bentley
First Friday
October 7, 2022, speaker was
Dr. Claudio Campagnari, Chair of the
Department of Physics at UCSB. He described the latest high energy physics
at CERN. View his talk here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8_ns8qr_Kk
http://hep.ucsb.edu/people/claudio/CV_short_2022.pdf
First Friday,
September 2, 2022, speakers were our
Museum Astronomy Programs Manager, Krissie Cook,
and CalTech Post-Doctoral Researcher,
Rocio Kiman, gave us a "Grand Tour of the James
Webb [Space Telescope findings] Up to now".
View it here: https://youtu.be/fnVPbjGZ2t0
First Friday
August 5, 2022, speaker was Claire Williams of UCLA,
speaking on "Recent Supersonic
Progress on the Foundation of the First Structures in the
Universe" . View at Youtube SB
AstroUnit channel:
https://youtu.be/0HolG_9i3GM.
https://www.astro.ucla.edu/~clairewilliams/
First Friday General Meeting,
July 1, 2022, was Dr. Rob Zellem
on "Exoplanet
Atmospheres"
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/people/301/rob-zellem/
First Friday General Meeting,
June 3, 2022, was Ben Darvish
on "Evolution of
galaxies in diverse environments",
see the replay at
SB AstroUnit Channel.
Ben's astrophotography at:
https://www.astrobin.com/users/Astrolab/
and his
CV-résumé.
First Friday General Meeting, May
6, 2022, was Dr. Timothy Brandt,
Asst. Professor,
UCSB Physics, presenting "The Mystery
of Dark Matter" now
saved at the
SB AstroUnit Channel.
See more on Tim:
https://web.physics.ucsb.edu/~tbrandt/
First Friday "Zoom" Meeting,
April 1st, 2022, was Mirek Brandt
and his topic was
"Weighing Exoplanets, Watching the Star".
A Ph.D.
candidate at UCSB working with Las Cumbres Observatory.
See the replay at
https://youtu.be/vC75jDooc7U
Also
see
https://www.mirekbrandt.com/
Our
First Friday Meeting,
March 4, 2022
was Briley Lewis
as our speaker. Her topic was
"How to take an Exo-planet's Picture". See it
here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JvxPljD9TY .
She is a NSF fellow
and 3rd year graduate student at UCLA, studying Astronomy and
Astrophysics.
Also see:
http://www.briley-lewis.com.
Listing of some of our past speakers since 2008
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