Co-Hosting with KikaSilva Pla Planetarium – Santa Fe College
The Planetarium will be showing "Forward! To the Moon" at 7 pm, "Music 360: Horizons of the Future" at 8 pm, and "Music 360: Led Zeppelin at 9 pm. (Tickets for these show are through the Planetarium.)
AAC volunteers are invited to set up telescopes in the courtyard in front of the Planetarium starting at 6:00 pm.
Sunset is at 7:36 pm, moon rise is at 5:35 pm, 87.4% illumination.
Will email a GO or NO GO by noon the day of event to registrants. Will also post on website.
Event coordinator contact Lisa Eager
352-318-4074
lisa.eager@alachuaastronomyclub.org
The Far Out Journal Club invites you to join us for an online conversation with our fellow club member and Director of the Kika Silva Pla Planetarium at Santa Fe College,James Albury
From the outer limits of the Milky Way, the Alachua Astronomy Club has started the Far Out Journal Club. Produced by Rich Russin and hosted by past president Terry Smiljanich, the goal is to have a personal, in-depth visit with the authors, artists, musicians, and other cultural icons who bring us the vast world of cultural science and science fiction.
The general format is designed to be convenient and accessible. Each episode will be announced in advance. All sessions will be by Zoom. Registration is recommended.
James Albury
Director, Kika Silva Pla Planetarium
Santa Fe college
Bioraphy:
His biography is reproduced, with permission, from his website: Learning About The Night Sky | The Sky Above Us - with James Albury
James grew up in Miami, FL where he started volunteering at the Miami Museum of Science and Space Transit Planetarium at the of age 14. He began by helping with ushering, but by age 15, he began working part-time as a console operator for the planetarium. Albury enjoyed astronomy and the planetarium environment so much, that he stayed with the Miami Science Museum until age 22 when he moved away to college.
In 1988, Albury relocated to Gainesville, FL to pursue a degree in Astronomy from the University of Florida. He graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science in Astronomy and pursued post-baccalaureate studies in astronomy shortly thereafter.
Careers in astronomy being what they were, Albury worked from 1993 - 2007 for UF's Office of Academic Technology and then as a manager with Lifestyle Family Fitness in Jacksonville, FL from 2007 - 2009. In 2009, Albury was able to professionally return to his first love (Astronomy) when he became the director of the Kika Silva Pla Planetarium at Santa Fe College. He has produced numerous planetarium shows in the 11 years that he has been the planetarium’s director.
Albury was also a co-host with Dean Regas of the internationally syndicated PBS show “Star Gazers” (the world’s only weekly television program on naked-eye astronomy). Albury and Regas hosted the show together from October 2011 to November 2019.
In February 2020, Albury launched his own astronomy series on YouTube titled “The Sky Above Us”. Each episode gives viewers a sneak-peak at the celestial events, planets and constellations that are visible in the sky during the coming weeks. (http://www.theskyaboveus.org).
Between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020, Albury served as President of the Southeastern Planetarium Association (SEPA); a professional organization for the support of planetaria and staff in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and all U.S. Territories off the southeastern coast of the U.S. He currently serves on the SEPA Executive Council as Past-president (2021-2022) and advises the current President and Vice-president. (http://www.sepadomes.org).
Albury has spoken around the country and internationally on various astronomical topics, including the challenges and opportunities for public interest in astronomy and astronomical outreach.
Lastly, Albury has a very supportive family in his wife Kandra and three children Drea, Myra and Bryce; without whom none of this would be possible.
Join Zoom Meeting:
Exclusively for AAC members!
AAC has organized a dark sky star party at one of the darkest skies on the east coast!
Sunset is 7:11 pm. Moonsetis at 8:40 pm.
Arrive at least one hour before sunset for setup and to get familiar with the observing field before dark.
Please review the Star Party etiquette for Chiefland. http://shorturl.at/cgkMO
You need to register to attend and receive directions to observing field.
Event Alerts - Members please register to attend. A "GO" or "NO GO" will be emailed to registrants by noon the day of the event. Your need to be registered for me to send you updates
Agenda:
7:00 - 7:15 General Meeting & Announcements 7:15 - 7:30 Short topic presentation by a club member
7:30 - 7:45 Refreshment break
7:45 - Public Presentation
Speaker: Dr. Hal McAlister, Regents Professor Emeritus, Georgia State University
Title: Astronomical Interferometry at Mount Wilson
Abstract: TBD
About the Speaker:
Hal received a B.A. in physics in 1971 from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, then his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in astronomy in 1974 and 1975 from the University of Virginia. In 1977 Hal joined the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy as an assistant professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Promotions to associate professor, full professor and designation as a Regents Professor came in 1982, 1987, and 1998. He retired from his faculty position as Regents Professor Emeritus in 2011. At Georgia State University he founded the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) in 1983 and served as its director until he retired in 2015. He led the team that turned a dream for an astronomical interferometer into the reality of the CHARA Array, currently producing the world's highest resolution images of the surfaces and close environs of stars. During 2002–2014 he also served pro-bono as CEO of the Mount Wilson Institute and Director of Mount Wilson Observatory, the site of the CHARA Array. He has authored or co-authored some 450 scientific papers in the areas of binary star speckle interferometry and long-baseline optical/near-infrared interferometry.
Awards:
UTC honored Hal as its commencement speaker in 2001 and as its Distinguished Alumnus for 2008. GSU designated him as its Alumni Distinguished Professor for 1996, its Doctoral Hooding Ceremony speaker for 2010, and as a Centennial Speaker for 2013. Hal's other awards include the 2007 Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the Michelson Lifetime Achievement Award sponsored by Lowell Observatory and the Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur in 2017. Hal and Susan McAlister were jointly awarded the Double Star Award of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society in 2009 and the Clifford W. Holmes Award of the RTMC Astronomy Expo in 2010 for their efforts on behalf of Mount Wilson during the 2009 Station Fire. Citing his "pioneering work in high angular resolution astronomy including the discovery of thousands of visual binary stars; for founding the GSU Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy; and for a decade of leadership of the historic Mount Wilson Observatory," Hal was designated as a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in January 2022.
Research Interests:
Hal had a two-year postdoctoral research associateship at the Kitt Peak National Observatory during which he became deeply involved in optimizing the then very new technique of speckle interferometry for high angular resolution studies of binary star systems. That method is now the predominant means for measuring orbital motions of resolved binary star systems.
Observatory Tour, Viewing, and Potluck
Saturday, October 19th 2024
6:00PM - 10:00PM
Cheney Residence
During our July meeting, club member Jerry Cheney, PhD, OD, gave a detailed and informative presentation on how he designed and built his home observatory.
Now, Jerry and Marianne invite AAC members to their home for a potluck dinner, observatory tour, and observing session.
Saturday, October 19th
6:00pm Arrival and Tour
7:00pm Potluck Dinner Potluck Sign Up Sheet
~8:00pm Observing
7:00 - 7:15 General Meeting & Announcements 7:15 - 7:30 Members Corner:
Speaker: James Albury, Planetarium Director and host of the YouTube Series "The Sky Above Us"
Topic: TBD
Join James Albury, host of the YouTube astronomy program "The Sky Above Us" (TheSkyAboveUs.org), and 2011-2019 co-host of the PBS TV Show "Star Gazers", as he takes you on a personally guided tour of our night sky, using our GOTO Chronos Space Simulator. Florida Skies is our weekly star show that familiarizes you with some of the popular constellations visible from sunset to sunrise, as well as the stories behind them. We'll also show you how and where in the sky you can find the brightest planets.
The Far Out Journal Club invites you to join us for an online conversation with multi-talented actor, writer, musician, and amateur astronomer, Tim Russ
From the outer limits of the Milky Way, the Alachua Astronomy Club has started the Far Out Journal Club. Produced by Rich Russin and hosted by past president Terry Smiljanich, the goal is to have a personal, in-depth visit with the authors, artists, musicians, and other cultural icons who bring us the vast world of cultural science and science fiction. The host for this program will be James Albury, Director of the Santa Fe College Planetarium.
In this episode we welcome Tim Russ, who many will recognize from his role as Lieutenant Commander Tuvok on Star Trek:Voyager.
Biography:
TIM RUSS has been working within the entertainment industry for over thirty years. His talents encompass a wide spectrum of the performing arts including composing, music (guitar & vocals), acting, writing, directing, voice-over and producing. Mr. Russ received his B.S. in Theater at St. Edward’s University Austin TX, and completed one year of post graduate work in theater at Illinois State University.
As an actor, Mr. Russ has worked in a cross section of feature film and television, including “KARMA,” “5TH PASSENGER,” “LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD,” “SPACEBALLS,” series regular roles on “THE HIGHWAYMAN,” “THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR,” “STAR TREK-VOYAGER,” “SAMANTHA WHO,” and “iCARLY.” He has also appeared in numerous stage plays including the original Los Angeles premiere of “DREAMGIRLS.”
Tim Russ has performed as a musician for over 40 years, playing rhythm, lead, and bass guitars, well as solo vocals. His musical talents are showcased on several CD’s currently distributed through iTunes and CD Baby.
As a writer/producer Mr. Russ currently shared the helm in the production of the feature, “EAST OF HOPE STREET,” which won “Best Feature Film”, and “Best Actress” on the festival circuit. He was also the recipient of the Sony Innovator’s Award for a commercial he produced entitled, “The Zone.
Mr. Russ has also been active in the TV/Film directing arena with credits including the television series, “STAR TREK: VOYAGER,” and the feature films, “LIFE ON THE ROCKS,” “JUNKIE,” “NIGHT AT THE SILENT MOVIE THEATER,” the pilot presentation “RENEGADES, " the award winning web series, "BLOOMERS,” and a collection of short stories he has written and directed entitled, “FRAME OF MIND," Volumes I & II. Mr. Russ has also received and EMMY AWARD for his directing on several commercials for the FBI.
Mr. Russ has expanded his performing talents to include voice-over. His recent V.O. credits include; Cartoon Network's, “SYM-BIONIC TITANS,” 6 audio books, a number of video games, and several radio commercials. He has also co-produced a musical children’s book and CD entitled, “BUGSTERS,” which won the National Parenting Award, and is featured on the playlist for the Fisher Price Mp3.
https://sfcollege.zoom.us/j/91733146162?pwd=Ib7KD0Sd1UKU8cbeUR0u7bxbOzmSOj.1
Location: The Village at Gainesville, 8000 NW 27 Blvd, Gainesville, FL 32606
Save the date! Details to be announced shortly!
Speaker: Dr. Jeff Dror, Assistant Physics Professor, UF
Title: Gravitational Wave Detection
Abstract:
Understanding the evolution of the Universe requires finding particles ejected during different epochs. We have already detected two classes of such cosmic fossils: microwave photons and light nuclei. While we have learned a great deal from these discoveries, they have left significant gaps in our knowledge of the cosmic history since the Big Bang. Dr. Dror’s presentation will focus on detecting new cosmic fossils in the form of axions and gravitational waves.
UF Physics Department, 2023-present
UC Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, (Post Doc), 2020-2023
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2017-2020
In his research, Dr. Dror focuses on gravitational wave detection in the nHz regime (10-1000 billion times lower frequency than those detected by the LIGO experiment). The most promising way to detect such gravitational waves is by tracking the arrival times of light pulses from nearby stars known as pulsars. There is an ongoing international effort to detect a signal in the nHz range, and his work focuses on extending their sensitivity to the pHz-nHz regime. This requires developing new ways to analyze the pulsar light data.
Speaker: Dr. Adam Ginsburg, Associate Professor, UF
Title: Molecular Interstellar Medium
He studies the formation of the most massive stars and how their formation process affects their neighbors, with the aim of understanding what physical processes control the stellar initial mass function. He uses primarily radio and millimeter telescopes to measure the molecular interstellar medium, which is the gas phase from which stars form. Turbulence and chemistry are the two most important and least understood processes that affect both how the stars form and how we detect their birth environments, so his research includes these fields by necessity. He is also interested in the maintenance and development of new tools to facilitate observational astronomy and comparison between simulations and observations.
Speaker: Dr. Eric Perlman
Title: Active Galactic Nuclei
Dr. Perlman came to Florida Tech in 2007 after postdoctoral fellowships at Goddard Space Flight Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute, as well as research staff and research faculty positions at the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Dr. Perlman is an observational astrophysicist whose research concentrates on the nuclei of galaxies, their physics and evolution, particularly those in which the central black hole has a large rate of accretion and is abnormally active (the so-called active galactic nuclei). He was a member of the AGN science team for CanariCam, a first-light instrument for the Gran Telescopio Canarias, and is now a science team member for MIRADAS, one of the GTC's third-generation instruments.
Dr. Perlman specializes in the structure and physics of high-velocity outflows from compact objects and AGN, particularly, jets. He has a strong interest in clusters of galaxies, galactic activity in clusters and observational cosmology. He has taken an active interest in the intersection of quantum gravity and astrophysics. He takes a multiwaveband approach to these subjects, and has worked in virtually every energy range from the radio through gamma-rays. He is interested in the process of accretion, including events that can temporarily make black holes active (tidal disruption events). He pursues interests in astrobiology, particularly the impact of active black holes on habitable planets.
