[AANC Contacts] The Fall Benjamin Dean Lecture Series in Astronomy

[Kenneth Frank]

Hello Labor Day Astro Folk,

Katie has assembled a wonderful series of lecturers for the fall season.

If any of you listen to podcasts, do check out Dr. Richard Pogge's OSU Astronomy 161:
http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast161/Audio/

I've listened to them all, more than once.  Don't miss him on September 22nd,

Ken

The Fall Benjamin Dean Lecture Series in Astronomy features exciting information
about some of the newest telescopes and spacecraft exploring space. While the
California Academy of Sciences is reopening to the public on September 27, the
fall Dean Series will still be held at the Jewish Community Center at 3200
California Street in San Francisco. Tickets are $5 each, and are available
online at http://www.calacademy.org/events/index.php or at the door. Parking is
available across the street in the UCSF Laurel Heights campus parking lot or in
the JCCSF garage.  The #1 California, #3 Jackson, #4 Sutter, and #43 Masonic
MUNI lines stop directly in front of the building. The #38 Geary and #24
Divisidero stop four to five blocks away

The lectures will return to Golden Gate Park to take up their permanent home in
the new Morrison Planetarium in January with the first lecture of the 20th
Anniversary Benjamin Dean Lecture Series. Speakers will be Fellows of the
California Academy of Sciences, and will include cosmologist Alex Filippenko,
planet hunter Geoff Marcy, SETI Director Jill Tarter, and astrobiologists David
Morrison and David Des Marais.
__________
Monday, 22 September

“Both Eyes Wide Open—The Large Binocular Telescope”

After more than a decade of construction, the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT)
opened both of its massive eyes on the night sky for the first time earlier this
year. Located high atop Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona, the LBT is the
first of a new generation of extremely large optical telescopes. Its two
8.4-meter diameter primary mirrors are mounted side-by-side, giving it a light
gathering power equivalent to a single 11.8-meter circular mirror, making it
currently the world's most powerful optical telescope.  This talk will introduce
the LBT and its suite of powerful instruments, highlight some of the early
scientific results, and describe its future capabilities.

Dr. Richard Pogge, The Ohio State University

______________

Monday, 27 October

“The Phoenix Mars Lander”

Peter Smith is the Principal Investigator for the Phoenix Mars Mission, and will
be sharing the latest images from Phoenix’s Surface Stereo Imager and Robotic
Arm Camera as well as various geological findings from the Lander’s “summer on
Mars."

Peter Smith, University of Arizona

______________

Monday, 3 November

“Discovering New Worlds”

Humans have wondered about the existence of other planets since ancient times.
  We live in an exciting era when we are discovering planets in other star
systems. These systems are turning out to be far more diverse and extraordinary
than we ever expected.  This talk will follow the timeline of discovery,
tracking the search for extra-solar planets from the early false starts to the
outstanding successes of recent years.  How can these elusive objects be found,
what have we learned about them so far and what may forthcoming space missions
tell us?

Dr. Rachel Street, Las Cumbres Observatory affiliated with
University of California, Santa Barbara

______________


Monday, 15 December

“The MESSENGER Mission to Mercury”
The MESSENGER spacecraft is on its way to orbit Mercury, a planet of extremes.
Mercury has the greatest temperature variation, the highest density, and the
most Earth-like magnetosphere of any planet. Despite Mercury often being the
closest planet to Earth, very little was known about it because it is very
difficult to observe and study. It has taken 30 years to mount an orbital
mission to this terrestrial planet. MESSENGER has already flown by the planet
twice. It has revealed exciting new information about Mercury’s structure and
the geological processes that have shaped it. This lecture will cover the
challenges of developing a spacecraft to deal with the extreme environment at
Mercury and show some of the amazing scientific results from the MESSENGER flybys.

Dr. Robert Gold, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University

Katie Berryhill
*Coordinator, Benjamin Dean Lecture Series
California Academy of Sciences
707-745-9059 (home office)
kberryhill at calacademy.org
www.calacademy.org
www.calacademy.org/events/index.php

Golden Gate Park
55 Music Concourse Drive
San Francisco, California 94118

Reopening in Golden Gate Park  9.27.08