Lecture & Stargazing: Telescopes at the South Pole

One of our goals in holding these events is to share our experiences of what it’s like to be a scientist. Last night, postdoctoral fellow Abby Crites showed a picture of herself in the plane that scientists take to get to the South Pole. She talked not only about why the South Pole is such a great environment for studying the most distant light in the universe, but also about her personal experiences living down there to build a telescope.

Photo Credit for all Images: Christophe Marcade

  

After the talk, the event continued in two spaces. Outside, our telescope volunteers (led by the fearless Mislav) took advantage of the clear weather to show visitors a whole suite of objects, ranging from the moon to Jupiter to a nearby group of stars called the Beehive cluster. We even saw the International Space Station pass overhead, before it faded away behind the Earth’s shadow. 

Inside, we held an informal Q&A panel of graduate students and postdocs. From Abby’s talk, our visitors seemed to have cosmology on the mind — there were a number of questions about the cosmic microwave background and the early universe. We also talked about scientific accuracy in movies, the recently unveiled plan to send a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, and our own galaxy, the Milky Way. 

As usual, the lecture and Q&A was recorded and you can watch them here. The lecture begins at 03:53, and the panel discussion starts at 43:25.

Thank you to the volunteers who helped make the evening such a success, and thank you to the over 80 visitors who attended — we hope to see you all back in a month for Jackie's talk on the history of air on Venus, Earth, and Mars!

--Anna