Astronomy Cafe – Nov 8, 2021

Posted by as Astro Cafe

Video transcript of meeting

  • Dr. Robert Thirsk speaker for Dec 13th – arranged by Jeff Pivnick
    • 20 minute Q&A after online presentation
  • Two Clusters from earlier this year – Dave Payne
    • Double Cluster – 3-6 million years old, so stars are blue
    • Caroline’s Rose in Cassiopeia – 1.6 billion years old, so stars are more red
    • Owl, Flying Bat, Squid Nebulae and Peiades are coming up
  • Women Astronomers – Marjie Welchframe
  • Edmonton Astrophotos – Dave Robinson
    • Aurora – Abdur Anwar (from Blackfoot site) & Arnold Rivera (all-sky camera) & Ian Doktor (south Edmonton)
    • M1 Crab Nebula – Kent
    • Conjunction of Moon & Mercury on Nov 3rd – Jeff Robertson
  • Lauri Roche
    • Astro Compass from Elizabeth Griffin – Need someone who is interested to have a look at it, and decide what to do with it
    • Two FDAO Star Parties (start at 7PM): James Web Telescope events on Nov 20th (Matt Taylor and Chris Willet), Dec 18th (two more presenters)
  • Neural Networks – John McDonald
    • Starnet – neural network processing to remove stars – an aid in processing astrophotos
    • Neural network processing could stop future epidemics by identifying individuals that should be tested. Transmission could be reduced to near zero using this methodology.
    • Discussion about how neural networks learn.
  • Chris Gainor
    • Hubble Problem Update
      • Team has one of the instruments working
      • Signal synchronization issue
      • Bringing the other instruments online one by one
    • James Webb Space Telescope – Chris Gainor
      • Shroud on top of telescope has been cleared for launch
      • Dec 18th launch (4:30AM launch for us in Pacific Time Zone)
    • Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 – National Academy of Sciences – new priorities for astronomy, including a new, large 6m space telescope for the 2040s.
  • Next week’s Astro Cafe speaker: Emily Levesque – arranged by David Lee

Title: The Last Stargazers – a book by Dr. Emily Levesque

Emily Levesque
Emily Levesque

Description: A bird that mimicked a black hole. The astronomer that discovered microwave ovens. A telescope that got shot. The science of astronomy is filled with true stories (and tall tales) of the adventures and misadventures that accompany our exploration of the universe. Join Dr. Emily Levesque, author of the new popular science book The Last Stargazers, to take a behind-the-scenes tour of life as a professional astronomer. We’ll learn about some of the most powerful telescopes in the world, meet the people who run them, and explore the crucial role of human curiosity in the past, present, and future of scientific discovery.

Bio: Emily Levesque is an astronomy professor at the University of Washington. Her work explores how the most massive stars in the universe evolve and die. She has observed for upwards of fifty nights on many of the planet’s largest telescopes and flown over the Antarctic stratosphere in an experimental aircraft for her research. Her academic accolades include the 2014 Annie Jump Cannon Award, a 2017 Alfred P. Sloan fellowship, a 2019 Cottrell Scholar award, and the 2020 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize. She earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from MIT and a PhD in astronomy from the University of Hawaii.

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