Noted Astronomer/Artist Here & Meteor Shower Watch Tuesday!
LEONID METEOR SHOWER: The Leonid meteor shower peaks on Tuesday, Nov. 17th, with a new Moon providing ideally-dark viewing conditions. Forecasters expect a relatively mild display (20 to 30 meteors per hour) over North America followed by a much stronger outburst (100 to 300 per hour) over Asia. No matter where you live, the best time to look is during the dark hours before sunrise on Tuesday morning. And for the couch potatoes among us, you can also listen to the Leonids! The Air Force Space Surveillance Radar is scanning the skies above Texas and when a Leonid passes over the facility--ping!--there is an echo. Tune into Spaceweather Radio <http://spaceweatherradio.com/>for a live audio feed.
In conjunction with the Hearst Art Gallery's current exhibition "Landscapes of Our Solar System", the Gallery is sponsoring a presentation Tuesday evening at 7pm at the Soda Center with renowned Artist/Astronomer, William Hartmann, and a meteor shower watch from 8-10. Keep your fingers crossed for clear skies!
Through December 13 -
Out of This World: Landscapes
of our Solar System
Astronomy and Physics professor Ronald Olowin and Gallery director Carrie Brewster have teamed up again for the third and most visually dazzling art and science exhibition at the Hearst.
Exploration is a basic human drive, and, as long as there have been explorers, there have been artists who chronicled their exploits. Bringing together real and imagined landscapes within our solar system, and using new color imaging and printing technology, the art of space science is revealed in all its beauty and wonder.
Viewers will experience a dazzling, dizzying computer simulation of a fly-through of Mariner Valley on Mars, produced by JPL, interactive computer programs, a one-third scale model of the JPL Mars Rover, and a visual history of NASA solar system missions narrated by Harrison Ford. Highly detailed photographs taken by Mars Rover, Voyager 1 and 2, Hubble and Cassini are paired with dramatic views of planet surfaces and their moons created by some of the best-known space artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Stargazing and Leonid Meteor Shower Watch* -- Tuesday, Nov. 17, beginning with a 7pm presentation in the Soda Activity Center by astronomer, author, and exhibition artist William K. Hartmann, Ph.D. Booksigning with Dr. Harmann in Soda Center 8 - 8:30pm.Gallery open 6:30 to 7pm and 8 - 8:30pm.
*Stargazing after program weather-permitting. Check website Nov. 16 or 17 or call 925.631-4379.
IN THE KEITH ROOM
WILLIAM KEITH: Mountains of Shadow and Light
Learn more about this exhibit »
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