Astronomy News from Estes Park Observatory
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February Observatory Open House / Lecture /Public Star Night
The Estes Valley Astronomical Society (EVAS) in conjunction with The Estes Park Memorial Observatory is offering a free public open house/star night on Saturday, February 23, 2019. The goal of EVAS is to promote science and education in the Estes valley.
Our returning speaker for the evening is one of our EVAS club members, Dr. Gordon MacAlpine and the title of his talk will be:
Should We Resort to Geoengineering to Preserve Earth’s Biosphere?
Can Climate engineering Help Solve are Problems
Earth is the only planet known to support life. Unfortunately, our burning of fossil fuels is rapidly destroying the biosphere or life-support system. Recent reports from both the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the United States Fourth National Climate Assessment indicate that humanity has only about a 10-12 year window of opportunity to eliminate fossil fuel use and associated carbon emissions into the atmosphere, if we are to head off the most catastrophic climatic events.
Locally, Estes Park and Colorado are involved in ongoing processes to limit carbon emissions as quickly as feasible. Other municipalities, states, and countries are also cutting back. However, overall carbon emissions are increasing; and major impacts are taking place on the planet, including here in Colorado.
Computations by Scott Denning, Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, show that Colorado’s climate will be altered dramatically if fossil fuels continue to be burned. It is also apparent that significant changes will occur here even if carbon emissions cease globally, because of CO2 already in the atmosphere. As devastation is apparent throughout the world, there has been a growing call for large-scale, intentional planetary intervention to reduce the detrimental effects of global warming and climate change.
Global climate engineering or “geoengineering” can take different forms. Some proposals advocate for removal of CO2 from Earth’s atmosphere, while others would block incoming solar radiation before it can be trapped with the greenhouse effect. The latter may involve intentionally introducing pollution into the atmosphere, increasing cloud cover, or surrounding the planet with mirrors. There are also plans for further pollution of oceans in misguided efforts to promote their health, and to reduce rampant melting or heating at the planetary poles. We will examine these ideas and discuss reservations about their use, keeping in mind that we are involved in an existential dilemma and we may have to invoke one or more of these extreme measures.
This public talk, supplemented with visual aids, is intended for a general audience.
Dr. Gordon MacAlpine
Our speaker is Dr. Gordon MacAlpine a retired astronomer, physicist and a member of the EVAS club. He received a BA in physics from Earlham College and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Wisconsin. After a stint at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan where he was a Professor of Astronomy until 2000. Then he accepted the Zilker Distinguished Professor of Physics chair at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, where he continued teaching astronomy, physics, and environmental science until his retirement in 2012. Gordon and his wife, Barbara, live in Estes Park
The observatory is just north of the high school at 1600 Manford Ave. Park in the teacher’s parking lot adjacent to the observatory. The doors will open at 7:00 pm and the meeting will start at 7:30 pm. The presentation, including a question and answer period, lasts about an hour. After the presentation, weather permitting, we will look through the 16 inch dome telescope at various celestial objects. The lecture is free to the public and no reservations necessary. Just come and join the party and be ready to ask questions!
November Observatory Open House / Lecture /Public Star Night
“The Library of Babel and the VERY Large Numbers of Science”
by
John Ensworth
The Estes Valley Astronomical Society (EVAS) in conjunction with The Estes Park Memorial Observatory is offering a free public lecture Saturday, December 1, 2018 at the Estes Park Memorial Observatory. Normally our public lectures are on the 4th Saturday of the month but this months’ lecture is moved to accommodate our speaker. The goal of EVAS is to promote amateur astronomy and education in the Estes valley.
The scientist and the layperson alike try to grapple with infinity. It shows up at the edges of science and math every day. We have to deal with it. But can humans really visualize the infinite? Can we get a gut feeling for even just the very, very large? John Ensworth will take you to the fictional Library of Babel, based on the short story by Jorge Luis Borges of the same name, and use it as a tool to expand your perception of the very large. He will compare the size of the (finite but large) Library with physical and mathematical values science has found exist in reality. How far can your mind go… grasping the vastness of what is…?
John Ensworth is currently the Principal Investigator of the NASA SMD Independent Education Product Review at the IGES, which is a non-profit organization formed, in part, to conduct independent reviews on all Earth and space science education products produced by or created for NASA (www.strategies.org). His position is the one responsible for conducting these reviews and helping with NASA education and outreach efforts through the Web (http://nasawavelength.org/) and at large education conferences (i.e. NSTA, NCTM, and the ASP) that introduce the products that are scientifically accurate and appropriate for the educational audience they are intended for. In the 90’s Mr. Ensworth was a masters’ student and a PhD candidate in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. He teaches physics and mathematics at a number of online universities. He earned undergraduate degrees in physics and astronomy, and geography and meteorology with an emphasis in math and computer science. You can view a Webcam of his backyard observatory (Cherrywood Observatory) in Longmont at http://bikerjohn.com/webcam_page1.htm.
The observatory is just north of the high school at 1600 Manford Ave. Park in the teacher’s parking lot between the high school and the observatory. The doors will open at 7:00 pm and the meeting will start at 7:30 pm. The presentation, including a question and answer period, lasts about an hour. After the presentation, weather permitting, we will look through our 16 inch dome telescope at various celestial objects.
October 27th Observatory Open House / Lecture /Public Star Night
The James Webb Space Telescope
Is the subject of this month’s Estes Valley Astronomical Society (EVAS) meeting. EVAS in conjunction with The Estes Park Memorial Observatory is offering a free public lecture Saturday, October 27, 2018 at the Estes Park Memorial Observatory. The goal of EVAS is to promote amateur astronomy and education in the Estes valley.
Our guest speaker for this public star night will be Allison Barto, the program manager for the James Webb Space telescope at Ball Aerospace.
An artist’s representation of the completed James Webb Space Telescope
Credit: Northrop Grumman
Since the invention of the telescope over 400 years ago, humans have been building bigger and more powerful telescopes in a drive to better understand our amazing Universe. With the advent of the space age, we have been able to pursue even clearer images of the night sky through space-based observatories, revolutionizing astronomical knowledge. For the past twenty years, engineers and scientists across the globe have been working on a truly audacious next-generation space observatory. When launched, the James Webb Space Telescope will be the largest, most powerful, and most complex space telescope ever built. Its 22 foot-wide mirror and 72 foot-long sunshield will allow us to look back in time to see the first light after the Big Bang. Focusing on contributions built here in Colorado, this lecture will explore how astronomers’ questions shape telescope design and offer a
Allison Barto
Ball Aerospace Program Manager
glimpse into the amazing engineering that enables scientific discovery.
Allison Barto is the Program Manager for the James Webb Space Telescope at Ball Aerospace, where she leads the team responsible for delivering the optics and electronics for the 22-foot-wide telescope. When it launches to orbit the Sun one million miles from Earth, the Webb Telescope will be the most sensitive, largest aperture space telescope ever flown. It will be capable of imaging the first light in the Universe and detecting signatures of life in the atmospheres of extra-solar planets.
During her 20 years career in Civil Space, Allison has previously contributed to the Hubble Space Telescope science instruments and also currently manages the Ball Aerospace contribution to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, a large ground-based telescope under construction in Chile, in addition to over fifteen years developing the Webb telescope. Allison was the recipient of the 2014 Women in Aerospace Achievement Award for her technical contributions to the James Webb Space Telescope. When not building the next generation astronomical observatories, Allison is actively involved promoting her passions in education, inquiry based learning, STEM, and educational equity and opportunity and was the recipient of the 2017 Women Who Light the Community Award from the chamber of Boulder, CO for this work.
The observatory is just north of the high school at 1600 Manford Ave. Park in the teacher’s parking lot between the high school and the observatory. The doors will open at 7:00 pm and the meeting will start at 7:30 pm. The presentation, including a question and answer period, lasts about an hour. After the presentation, weather permitting, we will look through our 16 inch dome telescope at various celestial objects.
August 25 Observatory Open House / Lecture /Public Star Night
Beyond NASA: Private, Commercial, and International Spaceflight
By:
Suzanne Metlay
Dr. Suzanne Metlay
Geoscientist
1958 NASA 2018 Sixty Years in Space
We are nearly 20 years into the 21st century and Colorado is 1st in U.S. private sector aerospace employment, has the 2nd largest aerospace economy in the country, and ranks 3rd for awarded NASA contracts. So let’s put that in context – in the 60 years since Sputnik, how has space industry expanded away from NASA and into the international private sector? Let’s think back, look around, and venture forward into the next decade of spaceflight.
Suzanne Metlay is full-time faculty in Geoscience Teacher Education at Western Governors University, a fully online non-profit university founded in 1997 by 19 governors of western states, including Colorado. Previously, Suzanne taught astronomy and geology at Front Range Community College in Longmont and Fort Collins, was Operations Director for Secure World Foundation in Superior, and served as Education Programs Manager at CU-Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium. Currently, Suzanne is President of the Teacher Education Division of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers.
The Estes Valley Astronomical Society (EVAS) in conjunction with The Estes Park Memorial Observatory is offering a free public open house/star night. The goal of EVAS is to promote amateur astronomy and education in the Estes valley.
The observatory is just north of the high school at 1600 Manford Ave. Park in the teacher’s parking lot adjacent to the observatory. The doors will open at 7:00pm and the meeting will start at 7:30pm. The presentation, including a question and answer period, lasts about an hour. After the presentation, weather permitting, we will look through the new 16 inch dome telescope at various celestial objects.
If you have any questions, please check the EPMO web site at: www.AngelsAbove.org . The lecture is free to the public and no reservations necessary. Just come and join the party and be ready to ask questions! For more information, please call the observatory at 970-586-5668
July 28 Observatory Open House / Lecture /Public Star Night
The Estes Valley Astronomical Society (EVAS) in conjunction with The Estes Park Memorial Observatory is offering a free public open house/star night on Saturday, July 28th, 7 PM. The goal of EVAS is to promote amateur astronomy and education in the Estes valley.
Our returning speaker for the evening is one of our EVAS club members, Dr. Gordon MacAlpine and the title of his talk will be:
“THE BIG BANG IN A LITTLE NUTSHELL”
An artist’s rendering of the Big Bang
Why do astronomers think we live in a Big Bang type of universe? It’s a silly name, and it involves preposterous ideas. However, supported by numerous observational and theoretical advances, the theory has continually become more credible. Its strengths include an explanation for how matter originally came into existence, an understanding of the time and space characteristics for both matter and radiation, a realistic determination for the age of the Universe, and a recipe for how the elements were created in their observed or measured amounts. The theory may also help with answering questions regarding why our Universe is surprisingly conducive for the development of life.
In this talk, illustrated with diagrams and providing scientific background as appropriate, we will discuss the origin of the silly Big Bang name and how seemingly preposterous ideas (like the entire Universe consisting of “nothing”) can actually make sense. Then we will follow a path in time from the postulated beginning, through some crucial early stages of what astronomers call a “working model” for the Big Bang, highlighting both its strengths and weaknesses. The latter include lack of a firm theoretical understanding for how the Universe was born. In addition, it is reasonable to ask why the matter in stars, planets, and people didn’t simply disappear long ago. We still have a lot to learn.
This public talk, supplemented with visual aids, is intended for a general audience.
Our speaker is Dr. Gordon MacAlpine a retired astronomer, physicist and a member of the EVAS club. He received a BA in physics from Earlham College and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Wisconsin. After a stint at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan where he was a Professor of Astronomy until 2000. Then he accepted the Zilker Distinguished Professor of Physics chair at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, where he continued teaching astronomy, physics, and environmental science until his retirement in 2012. Gordon and his wife, Barbara, recently moved to Estes Park
The observatory is just north of the high school at 1600 Manford Ave. Park in the teacher’s parking lot adjacent to the observatory. The doors will open at 7:00pm and the meeting will start at 7:30pm. The presentation, including a question and answer period, lasts about an hour. After the presentation, weather permitting, we will look through the new 16 inch dome telescope at various celestial objects.
March 31st Observatory Open House / Lecture /Public Star Night
” Is the world around you a computer simulation?” An exploration of information, artificial intelligence, and the thoughts of Elon Musk and Nick Bostrom.
The Estes Valley Astronomical Society (EVAS) in conjunction with The Estes Park Memorial Observatory is offering a free public open house/star night on Saturday, March 31, 7 PM. Note, this is a change from our normal 4th Saturday lecture to accommodate a speaker conflict. The goal of EVAS is to promote amateur astronomy and education in the Estes valley.
Our guest speaker for this public star night will be our own volunteer John Ensworth.
With recent and rapid progress in photorealistic, 3D simulations (e.g. video games like the Climb, the Sims, or Arma 3, not to mention virtual reality (VR) systems), Elon Musk has repeatedly maintained that the ability for humans to realistically simulate reality is not far off. Assuming that everything in the physical world can be simulated, Musk posits that humans might decide to simulate themselves, once they realize the immutable limits of human and scientific progress (randomness).
There are three possibilities of human existence according to Nick Bostrom, philosopher, futurist, and author of the seminal paper Are You Living in a Computer Simulation:
- humans go extinct before they develop this technology;
- (post-) humans choose not to run many simulations for some reason;
- or we are already living in a simulation that might be part of earlier simulations creating further simulations approaching infinity.
Even if we do not live in a simulation (making this reality the prime reality), the universe may
‘accidently’ work like a simulation based on information itself. The advent of artificial intelligence or simulated humans (“Sims”) may force the world to enter a simulated reality in the near future.
John Ensworth is currently the Principal Investigator of the NASA SMD Independent Education Product Review at the IGES, which is a non-profit organization formed, in part, to conduct independent reviews on all Earth and space science education products produced by or created for NASA (www.strategies.org). His position is the one responsible for conducting these reviews and helping with NASA education and outreach efforts through the Web (video.strategies.org) and at large education conferences (i.e. NSTA, NCTM, and the ASP) that introduce the products that are scientifically accurate and appropriate for the educational audience they are intended for. In the 90’s Mr. Ensworth was a masters’ student and a PhD candidate in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. He earned undergraduate degrees in physics and astronomy, and geography and meteorology with an emphasis in math and computer science.
You can view a Webcam of his backyard observatory (Cherrywood Observatory) in Longmont by searching for weather in Longmont at http://www.wunderground.com/ under Webcam links or at http://bikerjohn.com/webcam_page1.htm.
The observatory is just north of the high school at 1600 Manford Ave. Park in the teacher’s parking lot between the high school and the observatory. The doors will open at 7:00 pm and the presentation will start at 7:30 pm. Weather permitting after the presentation, visitors will be invited to look through our large telescope at various celestial objects.
If you have any questions, please check the EPMO web site at: www.AngelsAbove.org . The lecture is free to the public and no reservations necessary. Just come and join the party and be ready to ask questions! For more information, please call the observatory at 970-586-5668
February 24th Observatory Open House / Lecture /Public Star Night
The Estes Valley Astronomical Society (EVAS) in conjunction with The Estes Park Memorial Observatory is offering a free public open house/star night on Saturday, February 24th, 7 PM. The goal of EVAS is to promote amateur astronomy and education in the Estes valley.
Our returning speaker for the evening is one of our EVAS club members, Dr. Gordon MacAlpine and the title of his talk will be:
Life On Other Worlds
One of humanity’s oldest, most important, and most perplexing questions has been “Who else is out there, beyond planet Earth?” There are seven other planets (sorry, Pluto) and many moons in our solar system, and our galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars orbited by their own planets. Since life developed here, it would seem logical that it also developed elsewhere, especially since many other stars and planets have existed for billions of years longer than our solar system. Why haven’t “they” contacted us? This was eloquently stated by the Nobel Prize winning physicist Enrico Fermi in his famous Fermi Paradox: “Where is everybody?” Would “they” consist of very simple life forms…or advanced civilizations…or non-biological machines? How might we detect them? Have we been visited already??
This public talk, supplemented with visual aids, is intended for a general audience.
Our speaker is Dr. Gordon MacAlpine a retired astronomer, physicist and a member of the EVAS club. He received a BA in physics from Earlham College and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Wisconsin. After a stint at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan where he was a Professor of Astronomy until 2000. Then he accepted the Zilker Distinguished Professor of Physics chair at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, where he continued teaching astronomy, physics, and environmental science until his retirement in 2012. Gordon and his wife, Barbara, now live in Estes Park.
The observatory is just north of the high school at 1600 Manford Ave. Park in the teacher’s parking lot adjacent to the observatory. The doors will open at 7:00pm and the meeting will start at 7:30pm. The presentation, including a question and answer period, lasts about an hour. After the presentation, weather permitting, we will look through the new 16 inch dome telescope at various celestial objects. The lecture is free to the public and no reservations necessary. Just come and join the party and be ready to ask questions! For more information, please call the observatory at 970-586-5668.
January 27th Observatory Open House / Lecture /Public Star Night
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission to Asteroid Bennu and Back
is the subject of this month’s Estes Valley Astronomical Society (EVAS) meeting. EVAS in conjunction with The Estes Park Memorial Observatory is offering a free public open house/star night on Saturday, January 27, 2017. The goal of EVAS is to promote amateur astronomy and education in the Estes valley.
OSIRIS-Rex Approaches Asteroid Bennu — Credit Lockheed Martin
The primary objective of NASA’s Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission is to return a pristine sample from the asteroid Bennu to help scientists understand the origin and evolution of our solar system, and how life began. Asteroids like Bennu are remnants of the infant solar system and contain a record of events that are not preserved on Earth. Bennu also is likely rich in carbon, a key element in the organic molecules necessary for life. Organic molecules have been found in meteorite and comet samples, indicating that some of life’s ingredients can be created in space; scientists want to see if they also are present on Bennu. OSIRIS-REx also will provide key insights into how near-Earth asteroid orbits change over time and how we can use this information to better predict which asteroids may pose a hazard to Earth.
Dr. Vicky Hamilton Southwest Research Institute
Our speaker this month is Vicky Hamilton. Vicky is a staff scientist and acting section manager at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. She received her Ph.D. from Arizona State University and her A.B. from Occidental College. Vicky has extensive experience with laboratory spectroscopy and planetary data analysis, having worked on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Science Laboratory, 2001 Mars Odyssey, OSIRIS-REx, and Lucy missions. She has built, operates, and manages a NASA-supported spectroscopy laboratory equipped to measure rocks, minerals, and meteorites. In her spare time, Vicky enjoys photography, hiking, and archery.
The observatory is just north of the high school at 1600 Manford Ave. Park in the teacher’s parking lot between the high school and the observatory. The doors will open at 7:00 pm and the meeting will start at 7:30 pm. The presentation, including a question and answer period, lasts about an hour. After the presentation, weather permitting, we will look through our new 16 inch dome telescope at various celestial objects.
October 28th Observatory Open House / Lecture /Public Star Night
Cassini Mission at Saturn
An Epic Ending to an Epic Mission
Is the subject of this month’s Estes Valley Astronomical Society (EVAS) meeting. EVAS in conjunction with The Estes Park Memorial Observatory is offering a free public open house/star night on Saturday, October 28, 2017. The goal of EVAS is to promote amateur astronomy and education in the Estes valley.
Artist Rendition Cassini Approaches Saturn
During its “Grand Finale,” the Cassini mission studied a never-before-explored region very close to Saturn. The spacecraft has taken ultra-close images of the planet’s rings and clouds, while revealing new details about its interior and the origins of the rings. After 22 of these week-long orbits, on September 15, 2017, the spacecraft plunged into the giant planet’s upper atmosphere, where it burned up like a meteor, ending the epic mission to the Saturn system. Bill Possel will describe the history of Cassini as well as the planning and execution of the Grand Finale. The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) built and operated Cassini’s UltraViolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) instrument.
Bill is the Director of Mission Operations and Data Systems at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has over thirty years of experience in space system management, development, and operations with the Air Force, National Reconnaissance Office, and NASA.
Prior to his appointment at LASP, he served in the Air Force, retiring at the rank of Colonel. During his Air Force career he managed numerous space system and launch vehicle programs and directed spacecraft operations at ground stations. His experience covers space systems from concept study through launch and on-orbit operations.
Bill earned his commission following graduation from the University of Cincinnati. He holds a Bachelor of Science in physics and a Master’s of Science in engineering physics from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He is also a graduate of the Air Force Air Command and Staff College and Air War College.
The observatory is just north of the high school at 1600 Manford Ave. Park in the teacher’s parking lot between the high school and the observatory. The doors will open at 7:00 pm and the meeting will start at 7:30 pm. The presentation, including a question and answer period, lasts about an hour. After the presentation, weather permitting, we will look through our new 16 inch dome telescope at various celestial objects.
Eclipse and Astronomy Apps
Here is a list of eclipse and Astronomy applications compiled by our friend John Ensworth from the Little Thompson Observatory in Berthoud. Enjoy