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Grace will be delivering a presentation entitled "The ZWO Seestar S50: The Next Generation of Smart Telescopes". HAL has recently acquired a Seestar for use by our members at star parties and outreach events. Grace will provide an overview of this exciting new development in the field of amateur astronomy.
Specific subjects Grace will cover include:

• The smart digital telescope paradigm
• Two generations of smart telescopes
• ZWO Seestar S50 specifications and features overview
• A walkthrough of Seestar's observing modes
(Stargazing/Solar/Lunar/Planetary/Scenery)
• Image processing, with examples
• Uses for the Seestar
• HAL's plans for the Seestar

Bio: Grace Coventry is Head of the IT Services Division for the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. She is currently serving as 2nd Vice President of HAL.

This talk will interactively explore why we have eclipses, and why we don't have them every month. We will explore the perfect triangles that allow for eclipses, our unique place in space and time which caters to this observation, some fun stories of eclipses in the past and connections to civilizations (and colonization) and finally learn how and where to see the eclipse in April.

Christine Hirst Bernhardt is a National STEM education leader and PhD candidate at the University of Maryland. In 2021-2022 she served in Congress as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow to advance education policy initiatives. Her passion for all things space fostered the Excellence in Astronomy Teaching award and participation on NASA's SOFIA mission. Christine identifies and addresses national needs in Earth and Space education as the chair of the National Astronomy Education Coordinator team and US member of the Global Leadership in Earth Science Education. Christine has developed programs and curricula such as a high-altitude balloon program, student space symposium and international space camp. She holds Master's in both Space Studies and Science Education. Her Doctoral research centers on international astronomy education and teacher learning with a social justice lens. She is interested in international science education and using Earth and Space topics as a gateway to STEM in early learning.

Join us for an informal, panel-style discussion about NASA’s recent successes building laser communications infrastructure in orbit. We’ll breeze through a brief overview presentation of laser communications technology, then chat with Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) principal investigator Dave Israel (and possibly other guests). We plan to leave plenty of time for audience questions, so please come ready to engage!

The clouds on the outer planets look very different from the what we see here on Earth, but then at other times they look more familiar than anyone might expect. I will talk about the general morphology of Jupiter's atmosphere, it's distinct banding and wind patterns, and of course the Great Red Spot. The discoveries from the Juno mission and the circumpolar cyclones at Jupiter's poles provide the opportunity to look at the other outer planets that all have polar storms of varying sizes. We will look at Saturn's Hexagon, the recent north pole of Uranus coming into view, and large dark spots on Neptune.

I'm originally from Buffalo NY and went to undergrad at SUNY Buffalo for Electrical Engineering and Engineering Physics, after which I worked for several years as a green building consultant working for a small firm that collaborated with architects on historical renovations and new buildings. Still loving astronomy and after a ski trip to Colorado, decided to change career paths and went back to school for astronomy at CU Boulder and then moving to New Mexico Tech, right next to the VLA to eventually earn my PhD in Physics. My PhD focused on modeling jet streams in Jupiter's atmosphere and what we could learn from observatories like Hubble and IRTF about waves and turbulence from cloud structure. I went to NASA Goddard for my postdoc where I continued studies of Jupiter's atmosphere, including the Great Red Spot and smaller spots and storms, and also worked on the OSIRIS-REx mission as an instrument scientist for a spectrometer which aided in finding the sample site for asteroid Bennu. I am now working in the instrument division at STScI on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the calibration reference file pipeline.

Jim Johnson's Bio from 2022.

Two years prior to the 2017 eclipse, then President Chris Todd gave a presentation to generate interest in the eclipse and he provided many thoughtful planning considerations. I know that I, for one, benefited from this presentation. Just prior to the eclipse date, I asked eclipse observers to record notes and images related to their eclipse experience. I called these notes in to use as a basis for a review of HAL's collective eclipse experience, which I presented at HAL's September 2017 meeting.

At the June 2021 HAL meeting, I embarked on a three-part series of HAL presentations that will culminate in a review of HAL's collective experience at the 2024 eclipse. The series title is The Great North American Solar Eclipse of 2024, and the three parts are:

Part 1 – An Amateur Astronomer's Guide to Solar Eclipses, (June 17, 2021) A general guide to solar eclipses and solar eclipse observing. Part 1: June 2021 YouTube recording

Part 2 – HAL Lessons from the Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017 (July 21, 2022). This presentation is the best “pre-game show” that I can recommend to prepare for the 2024 eclipse. While each and every HAL member or guest experience in 2017 was amazing, our collective experience is something quite special and worth revisiting. I prepared this presentation by starting with the with the 2017 collective experience, and added notes to derive helpful lessons for the 2024 eclipse. This presentation provides a sense of the variety of sites to which HAL members and guests traveled, their travel and lodging experiences, various experiences with weather, traffic, observation notes, and photos of sites, equipment, and the eclipse. This is a good place for someone to get a sense of what to expect in April. Part 2: July 2022 YouTube recording

Part 3 – The Collective Experience of the Howard Astronomical League. This part of the 2024 series has not yet been written, but I will be soliciting your eclipse notes and images for compilation into HAL's record of the 2024 eclipse. This compilation will be presented at the May 2024 HAL meeting.

I encourage all to review parts 1 and 2 as you complete eclipse observing and travel preparations, and to get a sense of the kinds of information that I will be asking you to collect for the 2024 collective experience presentation as the eclipse date draws nearer.

Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett from the Ways of Knowing podcast are coming to talk about Cosmic Visions, their radio series about the history of astronomy. Their show takes listeners from the first lunar calendars and the development of zero to the discovery of exoplanets and gravitational waves. Chris and Sam will talk about the stories in the podcast, how they made the show, and what they learned about astronomy along the way.

Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett are the founders of The World According to Sound podcast, which started as a series of 90 second podcasts in 2016 and has evolved into a series of award winning in-depth audio programs. Their philosophy is that intentional, communal listening is a way to reclaim autonomy in a visually dominated world. Their radio show minimizes speech and makes sound the focus, to give listeners a sonic space to have their own thoughts. Chris Hoff began his career in audio as an engineer for public radio and later podcasts. Sam Harnett started as a reporter covering labor and technology. They first met as volunteers at KALW in San Francisco, where they invented games to pass the time like who could put the basketball through the metal triangle rafters of 1970s public school architecture. They are currently producing their radio program as well as performing live experiential shows.

Topic Description: The James Webb Space Telescope, NASA's latest flagship space observatory, released its first spectacular color images in July 2022. This summer marks two years of the telescope’s science operations. In this presentation, Dr. Kelly Lepo will take a deep dive into some of Webb’s latest discoveries, including how galaxies in the early universe are not quite like what we expected, what glowing dust can tell us about how stars form and die, and how we can observe the atmospheres of planets inside our solar system and around other stars.

Bio: Dr. Kelly Lepo is an Education and Outreach Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, where she supports outreach efforts for the James Webb Space Telescope. She received a PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of Toronto. During her time in Canada, she made numerous local and national media appearances to talk about everything from the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse to the Super Blue Blood Moon. She previously served as the Coordinator of the McGill Space Institute, taught physics at Gonzaga University, and helped build the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, was a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified to carry a 2.7-meter (106-inch) reflecting telescope (with an effective diameter of 2.5 meters or 100 inches). Flying into the stratosphere at 38,000-45,000 feet put SOFIA above 99 percent of Earth’s infrared-blocking atmosphere, allowing astronomers to study the solar system and beyond in ways that are not possible with ground-based telescopes. In this talk I will present a brief history of SOFIA, it’s technical achievements, instruments onboard, and what it takes to be an airborne astronomer. I will conclude the talk with some of the science highlights and discoveries that were enabled by SOFIA.

Sachin Shenoy is an astronomer working as a principal staff scientist at Space Telescope Science Institutes (STScI) in Baltimore, MD and supports two instruments: WFC3 onboard Hubble and MIRI on James Webb Space Telescope. Before moving to STScI he was a senior research scientist at Space Telescope Institute (SSI) in Boulder CO and was a part of SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy), Science Center at NASA’s Ames Research Center (ARC). During his time at SSI and ARC he was working with three near to far-infrared instruments: FLITECAM, FORCAST and HAWC+ onboard NASA’s SOFIA. Prior to SOFIA, he was a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at Ames Research Center, staff scientist at Spitzer Space Telescope Science Center, MIPSGAL postdoctoral fellow and adjunct faculty at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His science interests are, understanding the physical and chemical properties of molecular clouds, effects of star formation on the interstellar grains, creation and destruction of organics in the interstellar medium and circumstellar disks.

Sachin is an avid bird watcher and loves the outdoors, frequently volunteering for National Park Service, Mobile Earth and Space Observatory (MESO), Astronomy on Tap, and local/city parks and recreation. He also enjoys cooking, traveling and long-distance running.

In this talk I will discuss the biggest lessons learned from the analysis of Apollo samples, current advances in sample analysis, and look toward to the exciting return of Artemis samples.

Dr. Sarah Valencia is a lunar geologist at the University of Maryland College Park and NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center through the Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology II program. Her research focuses on the formation and evolution of igneous lunar rocks using both lunar samples analysis and remote sensing techniques.

Note: This special meeting will not be at RNC. It wil be at: Howard County Library System Elkridge Branch, Belmont / Hockley Room, 6540 Washington Blvd, Elkridge, MD 21075.

To attend in person, you must preregister!
Scroll to the bottom of the library's event page.

Space Shuttle Stories: Firsthand Astronaut Accounts from All 135 Missions -- "Experience all 135 NASA space shuttle missions ever flown through the words of the astronauts themselves in this spectacularly illustrated volume. With more than 600 photos from the NASA archives, this guide is perfect for fans of space history and spaceflight."

"Astronaut Tom Jones provides readers of all ages with a definitive look into the spirit, challenges, enjoyment, and faith that accompanies Earth-orbit exploration. Space Shuttle Stories takes us inside the lives, the risks, and the dedication of those men and women who are reaching for the stars." —Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut and geologist.

Tom Jones is a veteran astronaut, planetary scientist, pilot, author, and speaker who completed four space shuttle missions and three spacewalks in helping build the International Space Station. Jones has authored six books, including Sky Walking: An Astronaut's Memoir, and has written for aerospace magazines such as Air & Space Smithsonian, Aerospace America, Popular Mechanics, and The Planetary Report. A senior research scientist for IHMC, he appears regularly on television news as an expert commentator for space exploration and science stories.

Abstract: The club has welcomed quite a few new members this year. This month's meeting will cover a few fundamental topics. The idea is to help new members get started and provide a refresher, or at least some useful tidbits, for longtime members. We'll also touch upon the various opportunities for any members who'd like to get more involved with HAL.

Meeting Agenda: (times are approximate; questions are encouraged!)

• Naked Eye Astronomy – Getting Oriented - Jim Tomney, 15 minutes
• Telescopes & Telescope Gear, A Brief Overview - Victor Sanchez, 15 minutes
• Beginner's Level Comparison of Visual vs. Photographic Observing – Jim Johnson, 15 minutes
• HAL Service Opportunities - Jim Johnson, 15 minutes

Once again, as is our long-standing tradition, we will use the occasion of our December meeting to hold our Holiday Pot-Luck Party at the Robinson Nature Center.

The meeting will be on Thursday, December 21st from 7 to 9 pm, with doors opening at 6:30 for those who bring something and need some time to set up. We’ll also include a zoom meeting (link above) for those who can’t attend in person.

If you can make it, please RSVP as soon as possible to vcs_dc@yahoo.com with Subject line: HAL Holiday Party RSVP and indicate how many people will attend and what item(s) you anticipate bringing. Examples of items brought to past holiday parties include… Meatballs, Ham, Salads, Chili, Casseroles, Potato salad, Coleslaw, Desserts, Juices and Sodas, Vegetables, Chips, etc…

Note that this is a members-only event, but you’re welcome to bring family members.

In addition to the food and fun, if you want to bring in telescopes and related products to swap, sell, or giveaway, bring the items with you. For those who attend in person, we'll also be raffling off a Televue 20 mm Plossl eyepiece as a door prize. Auction Link.

Abstract: Producing optimized and accurate transmission spectra from telescope data is a manual and labor-intensive process. Using artificial-intelligence-based processing, we automate and optimize the data reduction and model-fitting required for processing light curves and spectroscopic data from exoplanet transits with the Eureka! pipeline for Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations.

Using AI-based processing of HST transit observations, we present a standardized, homogeneous survey of exoplanet atmospheres. Spanning a range of exoplanet-types from hot Jupiters to sub-Neptunes, this AI-enabled science provides one of the most comprehensive surveys of exoplanet atmospheres to date. Using this tool to perform large-scale, data-driven comparative exoplanetology, we have identified long-sought after trends in cloud-formation for both the Jovian and Neptune/sub-Neptune regimes of exoplanets.

Bio: Reza is an exoplanet astronomer at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He received his PhD in Electromagnetics from Auburn University in 2016 and has served various science and engineering roles since starting at APL in 2016. His work focuses on exoplanet atmospheres & magnetic fields using ground and space-based telescopes (from optical to radio), technosignatures, and extending NASA's Deep Space Network capability. He has served various roles on NASA’s New Horizons, Dragonfly and Interstellar Probe missions.