The public is invited to share our telescopes to observe the sky. We’ll show such objects as planets, galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, and more. Festivities will take place at the Pedernales Falls Star Theater, adjacent to the Equestrian Area. The location is shown in blue in the map below.   

The evening will begin at 7:30 p.m. and go until 10:30 p.m.

A flashlight with a red bulb is good, but we have red cellophane we can use to cover a white light. Please do not bring a dog, unless it is a service animal; we prefer not to have dogs around the telescopes in the dark. Smoking is not permitted in the area of the telescopes because the smoke can damage optical equipment. Public consumption of alcoholic beverages is not allowed in state parks.

If the weather on a scheduled star party day seems questionable for viewing, you can check this website or call the state park office.

Join us for our regular monthly meeting this Friday!
Our featured speaker is Micaela B Bagley, Postdoctoral Fellow at UT Austin, who will talk about:

Galaxies in the early universe, how we find them and what we can learn from them

Micaela Bagley is a postdoc at UT Austin. She received her PhD in 2018 from the University of Minnesota. She uses the Hubble Space Telescope to study some of the brightest galaxies in the early universe, using them to learn how galaxies form and evolve as well as how they affect their environment.

Find out more here: General Assembly Event Page

To learn more about her research: https://micaelabagley.github.io/

“Dangerous Places in the Solar System”

William Ambrose

Planetary Geologist

 Meeting topic – Friday February 14, 2020

Be sure to join us Feb 14, Friday night at 7:30 to learn where you DON’T want to go for a pleasant Solar System vacation. Bill Ambrose, a geologist with the Bureau of Economic Geology, in addition to earthly geologic research has a special interest in planetary geology. 

So come and explore the worst places in the Solar System to have a  good time.

Dangerous Places in the Solar System

Human exploration of the Solar System—the Moon, Mars, and the Asteroids—continues to excite our wonder and makes the news almost on a daily basis. From the 1950 motion picture Destination: Moon to the recent 2015 film The Martian, the public has been treated to both the rewards and the risks of traveling and living in space.

 The Solar System abounds in dangerous places. Some worlds are so hostile to human life that it is almost impossible to imagine visiting them in the foreseeable future. The surface of Venus roasts at an amazing 900ºF under a staggering 90 atmospheres of pressure. A truly alien, nightmarish world, it rains sulfuric acid and lead sulfate (galena) on the mountaintops of Venus. Jupiter is blanketed by deadly belts of radiation because its powerful magnetic field traps high-energy solar particles. Io is convulsed with nearly constant, high-temperature, sulfur-rich volcanoes, and humans on the surface of bodies with limited atmospheres—the Moon, Mercury, the asteroids, and Mars—run the risk of meteorite impacts and lethal solar and cosmic radiation.

Other dangers include low-temperature extremes (less than -400ºF in areas of permanent shadow near the Moon’s north and south poles) and long-term effects of microgravity, both in extended spaceflight and in exploring the asteroids. Fortunately, many of the challenges can be overcome with advanced technology and engineering, ultimately leading to a sustained human presence in space.

Austin Astronomical Society 7:30 pm Meeting on the UT Campus – Mechanical Engineer Building, ETC rm. 2.136

Our next General Assembly meeting includes featured speaker Rob Pettengill, whose topic will be: Big Astronomy in Chile, the 2019 ACEAP Expedition.

Chile hosts both great observatory engines of astronomical discovery and spectacular conditions for amateur astronomy and astrophotography. For five years the NSF funded ACEAP, Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program, gives a group of astronomy educators, planetarium personnel, and amateur astronomers back stage access to the great observatories in Chile. The 2019 trip included Gemini, AURA, and LSST at Cerro Pachón, two nights at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, and the ALMA Array Operations Site, and an overnight stay at the ALMA Operations Support Facility. We also sampled two of the over a hundred astro-tourist observatories in Chile.

Rob will share the trip in images with insights into the lives of the amazing American, European, Japanese, and Chilean astronomers and technicians that make the new discoveries possible.

For more information, including time, date, and location, please click here: General Assembly meeting event

Don’t miss our next General Assembly meeting in October!

Michael Marotta, AAS member and writer, will present a talk on “Astronomical Symbols on Coins and Banknotes”.

Ever since the first coins were struck about 550 BCE kings and their mintmasters have used celestial events to record regnal dates or to show divine favor. Though today the motivations are different, the tradition continues. AAS member Mike Marotta has been granted several literary awards by the American Numismatic Association.

For more information, including time, date, and location please click this link.