| When |
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012, 7:30PM
What do the non-existant planet Nibiru, the rollover of the Maya Long Count, a long-expected and non-conjunction of planets, some sunspots, and a lack of reversal in the Earth’s magnetic field, and the continued alignment of the Earth, Sun, and galactic center have in common? They all got picked up and sensationalized as part of a 2012 apocalypse story. This “hoax” rolls pretty much every apocalypse story into one.
| Where |
University of Washington, Physics/Astronomy Building, Room A-102
| What |
The 2012 Hoax: The Kitchen Sink
Alice Enevoldsen
Pacific Science Center
Many thanks to our past speakers of 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 to date:
On January 22, 2012, Ralph Megna spoke at the annual SAS banquet presented "Beyond Pretty Pictures: How Amateur Astronomers are Making Discoveries and Changing Solar System Science," in which he talked about his work measuring asteroid light curves with a group of amateur astronomers and opportunities for amateurs to contribute valuable data to professional research.
On Wednesday, December 21 2011, Alan Whiting presented a talk on getting started with making variable star observations.
On November 16th, 2011, the SAS had its annual club business meeting.
On October 19th, 2011, the club viewed a pair of lectures by Alex Filippenko of UC Berkeley on general relativity adn the inner planets.
On September 21st, 2011, Nick Risinger gave a talk relating his adventures in creating the 5 gigapixel Photopic Sky Survey. You can see the results at www.skysurvey.org.
On August 17, 2011, SAS members Maxine Nagel and Zach Drew shared their experience from this year's 2011 Table Mountain Star Party, one of the Northwest's major observing events.
On July 17, 2011 Seattle astrophotographer Wade Hilmo discussed how he got started with astro-imaging, and walked the audience through the ins and outs of data acquisition, focusing, image processing, equipment, software and strategies to improve your images.
On June 15th, 2011, Burley Packwood spoke on "Constructing an Observatory," giving attendees a tour of his observatories in Eastern Washington and Arizona.
On May 18th, 2011, Tom Gwilym presented "Astroimaging at Mt. Lemmon," discussing his experiences studying CCD astrophotoraphy in Arizona.
On April 20th, 2011, Kayla Mendel presented "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?", a talk on her experiences teaching astronomy to middle schoolers and Ron Hobbs, JPL Solar System Ambassador from the Museum of Flight gave a talk on "Voyages and Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022."
On March 16th, 2011, Alan Whiting of the SAS presented on "Sir John Herschel and the Stability of Saturn's Rings."
On Feburary 16th, 2011, Dave Ingram of the International Dark Sky Association discussed "Artificial Nighttime Light Pollution: The Adverse Consequences and Means of Mitigation."
In January of 2011, the club's annual banquet hosted Scott Kardel of Mount Palomar Observatory for a talk on the construction and history of the Hale telescope.
On December 15th, 2010, Charlotte Christensen of the University of Washington, Department of Astronomy spoke on "Galactic Gas: Simulating Stellar Birthplaces."
On November 20th, 2010 the annual club business meeting for 2010 was held.
On October 20th, 2010, the club viewed "Journey to Palomar," a PBS-produced documentary film on George Ellery Hale's multi-year quest to fund and build the 200-inch Hale telescope and Mount Palomar observatory.
On September 15th, 2010, Eric Hilton of the University of Washington, Department of Astronomy spoke on "Big Flares on Little Stars."
On August 18th, 2010, Shawn Domagal-Goldman spoke presented "Cylons and Smelloscopes: False Positives and False Negatives in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life," a talk on his work on analyzing extrasolar planets for indications of life.
On July 21st, 2010, Tom Field talked about his RSpec software for real time, amateur spectroscopy.
On June 6th, 2010, Denis Janky of the SAS spoke on "Advancing as a Visual Observer" through systematic planning and logging of one's observations.
Dr. Joshua Bandfield On May 19th, 2010, Dr. Joshua Bandfiled of the University of Washington gave a talk on "Thermal Infrared Spacecraft Measurements of Mars and the Moon," describing how the compositions and temperatures of a planet influence the planet's appearance in the infrared and introduced many stunning visuals and their interpretation from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Mars Global Surveyor, the Mars Odyssey and the Mars Exploration rovers.
Jerry Galt On April 21st, 2010, SAS member, Dr. Jerry Galt talked about "CCD Astro-Imaging and Calibration," covering the ins and outs of how modern CCD astro-cameras work, and the implications this has for calibrating and processing the images they capture.
Keith Allred On March 17th, 2010, Keith Allred of the SAS Astrophotography SIG, presented "Imaging New Mexico Skies from Seattle," a discussion of his quest to build a remote-controlled, computerized observatory in New Mexico, accompanied by a live demonstration of astro-imaging from the lecture hall.
Alan Bedard On February 17th, SAS member Alan Bedard presented "Photometry: Measuring the Stars," in which he described his recent work imaging cataclysmic variables and eclipsing binary stars with affordable gear at his observatory in Washington state.
Rick Dickson On Dec 16th, 2009, SAS member Rick Dickson spoke on using TheSky planetarium software for planning observing sessions and learning the sky.
Dr. Ken Croswell On Nov 18th, 2009, Dr. Ken Croswell spoke on the "Lives of Stars" and held a signing for his new book of the same title.
SAS Board On October 21st, SAS business and upcoming board elections were discussed in the club's annual business meeting.
Ron Hobbs On September 16th, Ron Hobbs, JPL Solar System Ambassador from the Museum of Flight spoke on "Barnstorming the Solar System," discussing unmanned missions and their findings throughout the solar system.
Dr. John Wisniewski On August 19th, Dr. Wisniewski introduced SAS members to his work on exoplanet detection in "Imaging Circumstellar Disks: Exoplanet Diagnostics."
Rick Dickson On July 15th, Rick discussed "Utilizing Microsoft's Worldwide Telescope to Enhance the Astronomical Experience."
Jon Bearscove, SAS. Jon's June 15th talk "In Galileo's Footsteps" retraced Galileo's path through astronomical discovery and trial for heresy with photos from Jon's recent trip to Italy.
Jerry Galt, SAS. Jerry's April 15th talk "Observatory Construction At Home and Afar" recounted his adventures building a prototype observatory for astrophotography in his backyard, and another one at a rugged dark sky site in Oregon.
Ron Hobbs, Museum of Flight, JPL Solar System Ambassador. Ron's March 18th talk "The Great Martian Road Trip" covered robotic exploration of Mars, past, present and future.
Maxine Nagel. Maxine's February 18th talk "Constellation Quiz" presented a star hopping tour of the Northern sky.
Professor Bruce Balick. On November 19th, Prof. Balick spoke about Hubble's past, present, and future as well as the upcoming James Webb Telescope.
Paul Rodman. On October 15, 2008, Paul gave a great lecture introducting Fermi's Paradox to the audience. This paradox focuses on the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations...or the lack thereof. His presentation included historical documentation, great video clips, and thought-provoking content. In the audience we even had a visiting LGM, or rather a visiting LGW...dressed in green with antennae.
David Dorais, Rubie Sanborn Johnson, Edward J. Mannery, Burley Packwood, Bob Suryan, and Chris Laurel. At the "Show and Tell" presentation of June 18, David showed a nice DVD movie on cosmic collisions; Rubie and Edward showed us the RubyScope, a 6" reflector kit built for kids; Burley gave us an account of his trip to Whipple Observatory in Arizona; Bob showed pictures of Kitt Peak Observatory which he first visited 32 years ago; and Chris did a demo of his amazing 3D visualization software Celestia.
Prof. Victoria Meadows. On May 21, 2008, Prof. Victoria Meadows of Univ. of Washington talked about how we will search for and identify planets that might support life around other stars, and described results from the new science of astrobiology that will help us recognize signs of life on these distant worlds.
Denis Janky. On April 16th, 2008, Denis Janky, a fellow SAS member, shared with the audience observing tips, favorite galaxies for telescopes large and small, and other resources.
Dr. Chris Brook. On March 19th, 2008, Dr. Chris Brook of University of Washington spoke on the cosmological simulations of galaxy formation.
Paul Rodman. On February 22nd, 2008, Paul Rodman gave a very entertaining and extremely informative talk on planning and logging astronomical observations, which also included a demonstration using the software AstroPlanner.