First Lecture and Stargazing Event with Talk by Dr. Evan Kirby

Photo Credit for all Images: Christophe Marcade

Tonight we hosted our first event, officially kicking off our inaugural stargazing and public lecture series.  Professor Evan Kirby spoke to a room of 90 attendees about how he and other scientists use the Keck telescopes to study how dwarf galaxies evolve over time.  Utilizing spectrographic instruments to break starlight into its component colors, he is able to determine the chemical makeup of the stars inside these dwarf galaxies.  Once scientists know the chemical makeup of these stars, they can deduce how and when the stars formed to produce the galaxy as we see it today.

After the lecture, attendees were invited to look through our telescopes at the various objects visible that night including the Orion Nebula, the Pleiades, and the Moon.  Later in the night, Jupiter rose and we were able to see all four of its Galilean Moons!

Finally, we hosted an informal panel made up of three specialists from the field of gravitational wave astronomy.  Dr. Jamie Rollins, Dr. Chiara Mingarelli, and Dr. Leo Stein answered questions about the LIGO gravitational wave discovery last week providing some insight behind the announcement.  It was a lively discussion for over an hour about what the discovery means, and what it tells us about the Universe around us.

The entire event was recorded and is available to watch on your computer--go to this link.  To skip the announcement and deadtime, you can jump to the lecture beginning at minute 7:48, and the gravitational wave panel discussion beginning at minute 52:00.  We will be recording all of our lectures from now on, so you never have to miss an event!

Thanks to everyone who came out.  We're looking forward to a great year!

--Cameron