Friends of Palomar Observatory Events for Members
JULY 2013
Saturday JULY 13, 2013 7:00pm - 10:00pm
PALOMAR OBSERVATORY OUTREACH CENTER
GUEST SPEAKER DR. DOUG LEONARD AT 7:00pm
Picture by "Kelly Calligan / Daily Aztec"
Are Supernovae Round? Roughly once per century in a typical galaxy, a massive star ends its life in a
spectacular explosion called a supernova. The physical process by which these
stars explode, however, remains a mystery. Conventional wisdom holds that a
spherically symmetric mechanism is at work, one that expels the ejecta equally
in all directions. Using recent evidence derived from a novel observational
technique employed at the world's largest optical telescopes (including the
Hale), I will argue that the innermost regions of these stellar explosions are,
in fact, severely distorted, the result of an explosion mechanism that is
strongly non-spherical in nature. Douglas Leonard is Associate Professor of Astronomy at San Diego State
University, having previously served as National Science Foundation Astronomy
and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Scholar at the California Institute of Technology
and, prior to that, as a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Five College Astronomy
Department in Amherst, MA. Dr. Leonard received his B.A. in astronomy from the
University of Pennsylvania, and his M.S., and Ph.D. in astrophysics from the
University of California, Berkeley. His publications include over 50 articles
in the technical literature. A passionate science educator, his latest
endeavors include work on several BBC/Horizon videos on black holes, cosmology,
and the deaths of stars (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx5210jP7yY) .
PREVIOUS EVENTS THIS YEAR
Saturday May 11, 2013 7:00pm - 10:00pm
DAVID LEVITAN Caltech Astronomer
The search for AM CVn systems with the Palomar Transient Factory
Among the most exotic "stars" known are the AM CVn systems - ultra-compact binaries with orbital periods less than an hour. Their extremely short orbital periods make them strong Galactic sources of gravitational waves, but no one has yet understood how many of them exist in the Galaxy. I will describe these systems and why understanding their population is essential, and show how we use the Palomar and Keck telescopes to find new systems and by doing so, better determine their population.
JUNE 2013
Saturday JUNE 15, 2013
SOLAR OBSERVING Noon - 5:00pm
GUEST SPEAKER JIM LAFFERTY AT 2:00pm
"Observing and Imaging Our Sun"
For this presentation, Jim will walk us through the basics of observing and imaging our sun with both hydrogen alpha and white light filtered telescopes. We will discuss the solar features you can expect to see through the eyepiece and some basic info on the best ways to image the sun. Some details on the most common equipment and software will also be discussed.
Jim Lafferty hails from Redlands, in Southern California, and has been an amateur astronomer for 35 years. After many years of visual observing, he took on nighttime deep sky imaging. In 2010, he got the solar "bug" and turned from the "dark side" to the adventure that is imaging our sun. Observing and imaging our nearest star in both traditional "white light" and in the specific band of hydrogen alpha, Jim's work has been featured in Sky and Telescope Magazine, Astronomy Magazine, the UK's "The Astronomer", Amateur Astronomy Magazine, NASA's APOD, Space.com, Yahoo News, numerous blogs and online astronomy sites, and in High School Physics Textbooks. Jim also participates in various public outreach events, as well as giving presentations on the sun in the classroom. He is the author and publisher of the full color hardcover book "Imaging Our Sun" (2012). You can get more information on solar imaging and see more of Jim's work at his website at: http://scopetrader.com/jimlafferty.
See the prior years events.
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