[AANC Contacts] LCROSS Reminder Jan 21st and Encore on Dark Energy Feb 2nd

[Kenneth Frank]

Hello All,

A reminder for:

Wednesday, January 21, at 7 pm,
Astronomer Anthony Colaprete of NASA's Ames Research Center will give a non-technical,
illustrated talk on:
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Prospecting for Water on the Moon: The Upcoming LCROSS Mission
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as part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures in the Smithwick Theater, Foothill College,
El Monte Road and Freeway 280, in Los Altos Hills, California.

Free and open to the public. Parking on campus costs $2.
Call the series hot-line at 650-949-7888 for more information and driving directions.
No background in science will be required for this talk.  Seating is first come, first served.
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This coming April, NASA will purposely crash two spacecraft into one of the Moon's polar 
regions.
The impacts should raise huge plumes of material, visible even to smaller telescopes on Earth.
Astronomers will search for evidence of water in the plumes to get a better sense of how 
much frozen water
may lay hidden in the deep, shadowed craters of the Moon's North and South poles.

Dr. Colaprete, the Principal Investigator for this intriguing mission, will fill us in on 
why scientists believe
there is water on the Moon (even though there is no air), and how we might put such water 
to use in future exploration.
He will preview the LCROSS mission and discuss the campaign to observe the plumes from 
Earth and space.

The lecture is co-sponsored by:
* NASA Ames Research Center
* The Foothill College Astronomy Program
* The SETI Institute
* The Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

This talk is part of the local events celebrating the International Year of Astronomy in 2009.
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Past Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are now available in MP3 format at:
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast/index.html


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An update from Katie Berryhill of the CAS.
Also I've included the Spring Lecture Series in PDF format if you wish to download:
http://www.planitarium.net/aanc/calendar/dean_sp09final.pdf

We are pleased to offer an encore presentation of Alex Filippenko's talk,
"Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe." This presentation will take place on
February 2nd, 2009 from 7:30pm-9:00pm. This special encore is intended for
those who were unable to attend the original lecture. We at the Academy are
constantly in the process of reviewing and improving our reservation and
ticketing procedures. Based on your feedback, we have made some adjustments
to our reservation process (outlined below). We appreciate your patience as
we transition to the new building and new infrastructure.

Reservations for all of the spring lecture series are now available by
calling 415-379-8000 and pressing 0 for an agent. In light of the
overwhelming interest in our inaugural lecture, we strongly recommend advance
ticketing. We are unable to guarantee tickets at the door, so please check
with our phone representatives or on our website at www.calacademy.org for
the status of ticket sales. Online ticketing is not available at this time;
however, we expect to offer this in the near future. I will send out an
e-mail as soon as I have personally confirmed that it is up and working.

When you arrive for the lecture, there will be a separate, clearly marked
"will call" line.  There will be a planetarium staff member available outside
to answer questions until 7:30 pm, so that the ticketing line can run more
quickly. Tickets will be taken at the entrance to Hohfeld Hall (our
planetarium queuing area), but not until we are within 10 minutes of opening
the planetarium doors, so that you may wait more comfortably in the lobby
area.

Thank you for your continued support of the Benjamin Dean Lectures and the
California Academy of Sciences.

Katie Berryhill
Coordinator
Benjamin Dean Lecture Series
____________________________________
Benjamin Dean Lecture Series in Astronomy
Morrison Planetarium
California Academy of Sciences
55 Concourse Drive
San Francisco, CA 94118
415-379-8000
deanseries at calacademy.org
http://www.calacademy.org/events/index.php