Regular Monthly Meeting Saturday March 26 at 7 PM
Join us on March 26th at 7 PM for our regular monthly meeting, 6 PM if you are going to join us for the supper bowl.
Dr. Robertson (Jeff) is going to elaborate his Hub talk for us at the March club meeting. This program is particularly timely with the passing of recently discovered comets hurtling past the earth as it is about tracking near earth objects and variable star observation. These are both things that one could do with the RRT. Currently forecast to be clear and moon does not rise for several hours after dark. Be a good night for those with scope issues to pick the brains of other members. Steve Block and Chris Lasley and likely others can help.
But here is the deal. We don’t have a supper bowl scheduled. Steve and Chris have agreed to shop and fire up the grill for hotdogs and fixens but we need a good head count and we need it not later than noon Sat.
Please use button below to RSVP for dinner.
As always, meetings of the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society are open to the public.
Supper bowl will be at 6PM. Price will be $5 each. Please RSVP so we will know how much to make.
Special Event
Dr. Jeff Robertson, a professor of astrophysics and Dean of the College of Natural and Health Sciences at Arkansas Tech University, will give a free lecture on his work involving binary stars and the detection of near-Earth objects with the help of those from the amateur astronomy community here in Arkansas. Jeff is well known for his lively and fascintating talks and we hope that you will join us for an afteroon of fun and SCIENCE!
Dr. Jeff W. Robertson is Professor of Astrophysics and Dean of the College of Natural and Health Sciences
at Arkansas Tech University.
Growing up in Topeka Kansas, he enjoyed
dissections of animals, bugs and electronics, pyrotechnics involving kitchen & garage chemicals,
severe weather and tornados as well as reading tons of science fiction.
A little too much StarTrek and Star Wars likely embedded the idea in his head of venturing into space as an astronaut.
While obtaining a B.S. in physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas, played too much pick-up basketball, ran around as the Jayhawk mascot, got married, and headed to graduate school. An M.S. from San Diego State University and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics at Indiana University completed his transformation into scientist as well as dad to a daughter and twin sons.
Even though he never physically made it into space, he is a landlubber astronaut as he gets to go out and explore the cosmos each and every day, because astronauts don’t g o to space every day, but astronomers do.
He studies binary stars with their complex interactions, follows faint asteroids, saving humanity from the fate of the dinosaurs, hunts for super-nova, works on instruments for telescopes, including the WIYN 3.5-meter at Kitt Peak National Observatory, builds hardware and creates software for the automation of robotic telescopes & observatories as well as for the analysis of astronomical images.
He helps train amateur astronomers to participate in relevant research with their equipment as part of the Center for Backyard Astrophysics (CBA). He has collaborations with amateur and professional astronomers in the U.S and around the world, writing grants, making observations, doing research and writing publications. He is a member of the American Astronomical Society, the American Meteorological Society and twice President of the Arkansas Academy of Science as well as a member of the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society.
Upcoming Central Arkansas Astronomical Society Event:
Sat 3/26/2016 4 PM – 5 PM
Deadly Dancing Stars and Flying Rocks From Space, The Launch Pad / AR Innovation Hub, Little Rock, AR
More details
Darrell Heath
Central Arkansas Astronomical Society