December General Meeting

When a star explodes, astronomers use their telescopes to investigate: to identify the star and the cause of death, and when homicide is suspected, to look for trace signatures of the perpetrator. This talk will cover modern techniques in supernova "crime scene investigation" from a local astronomer - a "Coroner for the Stars" - and discuss the cosmological consequences of violence such as zombie stars and insterstellar civilizations caught in the crossfire

The August 21 total solar eclipse presents a huge opportunity to share your passion for astronomy with the public. Are you ready? Get tips for leading solar eclipse outreach events from Alice Enevoldsen, a local expert on teaching astronomy.

Some fascinating astronomical history is on the schedule for May's meeting! UW astronomy professor Woody Sullivan will present about the contributions of William and Caroline Herschel to our understanding of comets. Sister, Caroline and brother, William Herschel polishing a telescope lens (probably a mirror) Credit: 1896 Lithograph Genre Technique

The total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 promises to be the biggest astronomical event of the decade for the US. SAS board member Dave Ingram will tell us how to prepare: where to be, what equipment to bring, and how to engage your friends, family, and community.

Dan Dixon is creator of the Universe Sandbox simulation game. He'll talk about how he and his team of programmers, a planetary scientist, and a climate scientist collaborated to create an app that can model galactic collisions and solar system dynamics.

This year the Cassini Saturn Orbiter, nearing the end of usable life, will be sent on a daring Grand Finale that will include 22 passes between the inner D-ring and the top of the atmosphere. It is a place no spacecraft has gone before. This presentation was originally presented by two Cassini team members and will discuss the planning for this challenging phase of the mission.

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO) made the first ever incident detection of gravitational waves on September 14, 2015, inaugurating gravitational wave astronomy as a new tool to explore the hidden universe of black holes and other exotic objects. With the second observing run of the Advanced LIGO detectors, alerts are coordinated with over 60 astronomy collaborations to search for an elusive multimessenger source, a signal that could be detected both in ... more

The Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) is undertaking an all-sky thermal infrared survey to both discover new near-Earth asteroids and comets, and characterize previously known NEOs. NEOWISE provides simultaneous imaging at 3.4 and 4.6 microns, measuring the thermal emission from NEOs and allowing their diameters to be computed. JPL scientist Joe Masiero will give an overview of the NEOWISE mission, and present some recent results from this dataset.

Local astrophotographer Derek Culver will talk about his experiences imaging the sky from Chile's Atacama Desert, site of some of the world's biggest telescopes and best observing conditions.

After years of searching, scientists have finally found a planet around our nearest star. In this talk UW astronomy graduate student Ethan Kruse will discuss how much we know about the planet right now, and what we might learn in the coming years. Image credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser