Dr Tom Zobrist received his PhD in Optical Engineering from the University of Arizona. He worked as a metrologist and optical research engineer at the Optical Sciences Center and Stewart Observatory Mirror Laboratory in Tucson, AZ between 2003 – 2011. During that time he helped develop numerous optical metrology systems for measuring the surface figure of precision optics and astronomical mirrors for many of the world’s largest astronomical telescopes. In 2011, he made a career change from supporting the fabrication of the world’s largest optics to supporting the world’s largest optical system: the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he supports target and diagnostic alignment activities.

About a decade ago, scientists established a broad and deep understanding of how the observable universe has evolved from a hot, dense state 13.7 billion years ago. This understanding points to an early epoch during which the universe expanded at a stupendous rate to create the vast amount of space we can observe. Cosmologists are now coming to believe that this “cosmic inflation” may do much more: In many versions, inflation goes on forever, generating not just our observable universe but also infinitely many such regions with similar or different properties, together forming a staggeringly complex and vast “multiverse”.

In this talk, Dr. Aguirre will trace the genesis of this idea of “cosmic inflation”, explore some of its implications, and discuss how cosmologists are currently seeking ways to test this idea by actually searching for hints of other universes. Don’t miss this introduction to one of the most mind-boggling parts of modern astronomy.

At the Randall Museum Theater, 7:30 PM, 15 May 2013.

Gaspard Duchene has been studying stellar multiplicity and planet-forming disks, and particularly the inter-connection between both aspects, using a broad variety of observational approaches. While the prevalence of stellar multiplicity has been established for many decades, the discovery of extrasolar planets is one of the most exciting findings of modern astronomy. It is now becoming increasingly clear that planetary systems are frequent around Main Sequence stars. Duchene will discuss some key results on protoplanetary disks and mature plentary systems from a number of recent surveys based on the Spitzer, Kepler and Herschel space observatories.

7:30PM, WEDNESDAY, 17 APRIL 2013 AT THE RANDALL MUSEUM THEATER

Three-dimensional movies of the birth of the first stars in the Universe are just some of the stunning visuals at the Schwob Computing and Information Center, a resource at KIPAC’s Computational Physics Department. The visualizations are based on large-scale computer simulations that model complex astrophysical and cosmological processes. In his presentation, Dr. Kaehler will describe the role of scientific visualization in cosmological research, explain how he develops and employs state-of-the-art computer graphics techniques to produce the visualizations, and show many examples of images and animations resulting from the work done at KIPAC.

Dr Ralf Kaehler is a computational scientist at KIPAC, the Kavli Institute
for Particle Astrophysics andCosmology. He manages KIPAC’s visualization
laboratory, designs and implements computer graphics software and produces
astrophysical images and movies that have been presented worldwide on
numerous covers of magazines, in planetarium shows and TV documentaries.

We will be setting up the City Star Party before dark, around 5pm, and will conduct a short session on setting up your scope, and offer some hands-on help to get your telescope ready so that when darkness sets in, you can put your scope to work seeing many more items in the night sky.

More details can be found here.

Clear skies from the CSP team!

Robert Douglas gives a talk on the Titiro Etu, a navigating device created and used by early Polynesian navigators from the Cook Islands and Tahiti. Doug and Angie Traeger share their 2-year experience in the Practical Observational Astronomy class offered at the SF State University’s Sierra Nevada field campus. Finally, Paul Salazar will provide an overview of one of the most riveting astronomical phenomenon, eclipses.
7:30PM, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2013
AT THE RANDALL MUSEUM THEATER

Perry’s Embarcadero
155 Steuart St, San Francisco

Drinks on the Terrace at 6.30pm, dinner at 7pm.

In true SFAA tradition, we’ll have a great meal and honor a number of our amazing Members. We’ll also welcome the newly elected 2013 Board.

CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR PLACE!

Adult

Child

Peter Jenniskens latest project took him and 27 researchers on NASA’s DC-8 Airborne Laboratory for a mission to study the re-entry of JAXA’s Hayabusa mission in June of 2010. Before that, he had been the Principal Investigator of a number of airborne observing campaigns that studied meteor showers and the fireballs created when spacecraft returned from interplanetary space. He received his Ph.D.in astronomy from Leiden University in the Netherlands and has since been associated with NASA Ames Research Center and the SETI Institute. He is the author of “Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets” (2006).