Canceled --Star Party: Night at the Observatory

Poor weather outcast; will reschedule in Spring Semester

Due to poor weather outlook, we are going to reschedule this event early in the Spring semester. See you then!

Have you been to the observatory yet?

We live in a Universe that we now know is nearly 14 billion years old (that's 14,000,000,000 years old) and we can observe a region of space that spans of a diameter of 90 billion light-years. One light-year is about 6 million million miles (6,000,000,000,000 miles), so our Universe has an approximate diameter of 530,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles. The closest object to the Earth is our Moon, and it is "only" a quarter million miles away (250,000 miles away). 

With these vast distances and timescales, how we can study stars, galaxies, black holes, and search for other intelligent life when we are no where near having the technology to traverse these distances? How do we know what the Universe looked like in the past? 

Come up to the observatory and learn about how astronomers use light to understand the inner workings of our miraculous Cosmos across both space and time. See several professional telescopes, including a trip up to the 16" Meade telescope in the Geissberger observatory, and learn how light carries with it information from the past about the contents of space. Returning to the observatory pad, we will use the campus telescopes to look at planets in our Solar System including majestic Saturn and stately Jupiter, binary stars, red giant stars ("stars in retirement"), and star clusters. We may be able to quickly catch the Moon before it sets at the start. 

Date: Thursday, Nov 16

Time: 6pm - 8pm(-ish)

Where: Observatory Pad. See "Location" below for more information. Allow 15 minutes of travel time walking from central campus. 

Weather Conditions: We will run an abbreviated event in the case of clouds, but will cancel the event in the case of fog or rain. See if this post has been edited with a cancellation notice before heading out. 

Dress Code? : Prolonged exposure to the night air gets chilly, even if it was hot during the day. The hills are also windier than campus. Bring a jacket, maybe even a hat and gloves, to be safe. 

Location: The event begins and takes place mainly at the observatory pad, with a brief trip up to the Geissberger Observatory. The pad is the concrete area you pass as you walk to the SMC Cross. You can see its placement on Google Maps here:

http://physics.stmarys-ca.edu/observatory/#location

Note: If you arrive after 6pm and there is no one around (but equipment is set out), we are likely farther up the hill at the observatory. Come on up!