Speaker: Jimmy Lilly – Steward Observatory Topic: Identifying Prestellar Cores in Molecular Clouds Jimmy Lilly was a 2019-2020 Lucas Scholarship recipient and majored in Astronomy / Physics. He graduated in May 2020. He works with Yancy Shirley from the Department of Astronomy on “Characterizing Physical Properties Associated with Hierarchical Structure in Star-Forming Regions.”
February 17, 2021 Program Meeting Read More »
Speaker: Maria Galloway-Sprietsma – Steward Observatory Topic: Pulsar Timing Maria Galloway-Sprietsma is a Lucas Scholarship recipient 2020-2021. She is working with Dr. Yancy Shirley, Steward Observatory on a study of deuterated ammonia (NH2D) in star-forming region Cepheus L1251. They hope to explore the possibilities of using deuterated ammonia as a dense gas tracer, and believe
January 20, 2021 Program Meeting Read More »
SDAA YouTube Live Stream EventMonday, December 21 – 17:00-18:00Hosted by Gary Hawkins & Dave Decker The Great Conjunction It has been almost 400 years since Jupiter and Saturn were so close to each other, and approximately 800 years since the phenomenon takes place at night, this will make it visible in almost every part of
The Great Conjunction – YouTube Stream Read More »
Dr. Alex Ji: The First Stars Dr. Alex Ji is a postdoctoral fellow at the Carnegie Observatories. Alex is a near-field cosmologist, studying nearby stars and galaxies to understand the first stars and galaxies, the origin of the elements, and the history of the Milky Way. Alex’s main lockdown activity has been eating Trader Joe’s
Dec 16, 2020 Program Meeting Read More »
Speaker: Ryan Rubenzahl – Caltech Topic: Measuring the Speed of Stars More Precisely Than Your Car’s Speedometer The “doppler method” of detecting planets orbiting other stars requires precise measurements of the speeds of those distant stars. If we can see a star oscillating towards and away from us, we can infer that an unseen planet
November 18, 2020 Program Meeting Read More »
Speaker: Mia de Los Reyes Topic: The Loneliest Galaxies in the Universe Most of the matter in the universe is located in long and thin structures called “cosmic filaments” that stretch across the universe in web-like formations. However, some galaxies live in the much emptier spaces between cosmic filaments, called cosmic voids. By comparing the
October 21, 2020 Program Meeting Read More »
Speaker: Steve Hallmann, SDAA Topic: Dark Matter and Dark Energy Steve Hallman updates SDAA on the latest theories for dark matter and dark energy.
September 16, 2020 Program Meeting Read More »
Speaker: Dr. Nicholas Galitzki ( UCSD) Topic: Cosmic Microwave Background at the Simons Observatory Dr. Nicholas Galitzki began his astronomy career at the California Institute of Technology where he earned his B.S. in astrophysics in 2008. While at Caltech he was involved in two research projects, one with a lunar seismometer developed at the Jet
August 19, 2020 Program Read More »
Public Star Parties are held during the dark of the moon at the Association’s observing site at Tierra Del Sol.The schedule for these parties maybe found in the Events section of this website. The Club’s 22-inch Lipp Ritchey-Chretien reflector, as well as its newly acquired 8-inch D&G refractor, are available for club members and hosted
This year’s guest speaker is Dr. Vishnu Reddy, Associate Professor of planetary sciences at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona. The presentation will be held in the Nat’s theater, which has a state-of-the-art sound and video system. The topic is titled “Planetary Defense: Surveying the skies for killer asteroids” and should be very