AANC Calendar

2009 Index -|- Andy Fraknoi's IYA Calendar. -|- IYA 100 Hours of Astronomy

For individual club calendars, see AANC Resource Guide.

Events in previous years (Calendar Archives):
1996-2002 --||-- 2003 --||-- 2004 --||-- 2005 --||-- 2006 --||-- 2007 --||-- 2008
Archive of Past Special Events

January, 2009

2009 Jan 2 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 5:01 pm, 36% moon sets 11:13 pm. Star party hours: 7:00 until 10:00 pm.
2009 Jan 10 -Sa- SJAA General Meeting. Our speaker is Dr. Ruslan Belikov of NASA/Ames, Searching For Other Earths Board meeting at 6:30; General Meeting at 8:00
2009 January 12 Mon 7:30pm - Alex Filippenko, University of California, Berkeley. Benjamin Dean Lecture Series in Astronomy, Morrison Planetarium, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Concourse Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118; 415-379-8000; deanseries@calacademy.org ; http://www.calacademy.org/events - Observations of very distant exploding stars (supernovae) show that the expansion of the Universe is now speeding up, rather than slowing down due to gravity as expected. Other, completely independent data strongly support this amazing conclusion. Over the largest distances, our Universe seems to be dominated by a repulsive "dark energy," stretching the very fabric of space itself faster and faster with time. The physical nature of dark energy is often considered to be the most important unsolved problem in physics; it probably provides clues to a unified quantum theory of gravity. Adults $10, Seniors $8, California Academy of Sciences Members $5
2009 Jan 16 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 5:15 pm, 58% moon rise 11:57 pm. Star party hours: 7:00 until 10:00 pm.
2009 Jan 16 -Fr- SJAA Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm. The topic will be Telescopes & Eyepieces.
2009 Jan 17 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 5:16 pm, 48% moon rise 12:57 am.
January 17 UC Berkeley Astronomy Department Lecture - Geoff Marcy The Search for Habitable Planets and Life in the Universe - in Genetics and Plant Biology Building, Room 100. http://astro.berkeley.edu/~scroft/iya/
2009 Jan 21 Wed at 7 pm, Astronomer Anthony Colaprete of NASA's Ames Research Center will give a non-technical, illustrated talk on: Prospecting for Water on the Moon: The Upcoming LCROSS MIssion 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. Call the series hot-line at 650-949-7888 for more information and driving directions. 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. Past Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are now available in MP3 format at: http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast
2009 Jan 24 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 5:24 pm, 1% moon rises 6:59 am. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot has been reserved.
2009 January 28, Wednesday, 12:00 noon The SETI Institute, Europa room. Surface modifications by winds on Earth, Mars, Venus, and Titan - Ron Greeley, Regent's Professor, Arizona State University. Windblown dunes, ripples, and erosional features are seen on Earth, Venus, and Titan, while on Mars these features are ubiquitous and reflect the dominant agent of surface modification. Although the fundamental process is similar, the environments on these planetary objects are substantially different. Simulations conducted in the Planetary Aeolian Laboratory at NASA-Ames, coupled with field work and modeling, enable analyses of wind-related features and processes on planetary surfaces. Colloquium series webpage: http://www.seti.org/csc/lectures CSC/ SETI Institute Colloquium Series: The colloquiums are free and open to the public, and run from noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California.
2009 Jan 30 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 5:31 pm, 21% moon sets 10:09 pm. Star party hours: 7:00 until 10:00 pm.

February, 2009

2009 Feb 2. 7:30pm-9:00pm. Dean Lecture - encore presentation of Alex Filippenko's talk, "Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe." This special encore is intended for those who were unable to attend the original lecture. Reservations for all of the spring lecture series now available by calling 415-379-8000 and pressing 0 for an agent. 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. E-mail: deanseries@calacademy.org; Web: http://www.calacademy.org/events/index.php
2009 FEB 2 Monday at 4:00 p.m. WHAT PHYSICISTS DO -- KEPLER’S HUNT FOR HABITABLE PLANETS - Dr. Natalie Batalha of San José State University and NASA Ames Research Center will describe the science objectives of NASA’s Kepler Mission, scheduled to launch in March, and will also highlight some of the job opportunities that exist for physics majors in the space sciences. Sonoma State University Darwin 103, Coffee at 3:30 p.m. http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/wpd
2009 Feb 3. Astrophysicist Mario Livio discusses and signs his latest book 'Is God a Mathematician? ' - 07:30 PM at Kepler's, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA 94025. A fascinating exploration of the great discoveries of historyâs most important mathematicians seeks an answer to the eternal question: Does mathematics hold the key to understanding the mysteries of our physical world? Mario Livio is a senior astrophysicist and Head of the Office of Public Outreach at the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the author of The Golden Ratio, a highly acclaimed book about mathematics and art for which he received the International Pythagoras Prize and the Peano Prize, The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved and The Accelerating Universe. Introduction by Dr. Keith Devlin, a Consulting Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Stanford, an author, and "the Math Guy" on National Public Radio
2009 Feb 5. The Commonwealth Club is hosting Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium and author of The Pluto Files. He'll talk about how exactly he led the way for the demotion of Pluto as a planet. There will be a wine and cheese reception starting at 5:30, followed by the program at 6:00 pm. The event is in the Blue Room of the Commonwealth Club office, which is located at 595 Market St., 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105. Tickets to the event are being sold at $18 per person, but for students, tickets are only $7. For more details about the event, please visit this website: http://tickets.commonwealthclub.org/auto_choose_ga.asp?area=1 .
2009 February 7 -Sa- SJAA General Meeting. Our speaker is Dr.Chris McKay of NASA, who will tell us "What We Have Learned From the Mars Phoenix Lander". Board meeting at 6:30; General Meeting at 8:00 This is the Annual Meeting, to elect the Board of Directors.
2009 FEB 9 Monday at 4:00 p.m. WHAT PHYSICISTS DO -- THE CONVERGENCE OF PARTICLE PHYSICS AND ASTROPHYSICS: THE LHC/FERMI ERA - Dr. Michael Dine of the University of California, Santa Cruz will explain the relation of some of the big questions in cosmology and particle physics and how the Large Hadron Collider currently being commissioned at CERN and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope may address them. Sonoma State University Darwin 103, Coffee at 3:30 p.m. http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/wpd
2009 Feb 13, 7-9 pm Sonoma State Univ Observatory Public Viewing Night - Venus and the Pleiades, a Valentine treat!. (707) 664 - 2267; http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/observatory/pvn.html
2009 Feb 14 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 5:47 pm, 66% moon rise 11:48 Pm.
2009/02/18. Multiple Asteroid Systems: New Techniques to Study New Worlds. Franck Marchis, UC Berkeley and the SETI Institute. Since the discovery of Ida’s companion Dactyl in 1993, the number of known multiple asteroids has been continuously increasing and ~165 of them are now known. Since 2003, Dr. Marchis and his colleagues have been conducting a large survey of these interesting and diverse populations using various ground-based telescopes and techniques, such as high angular resolution imaging, lightcurve photometry, and VIS/NIR spectroscopy, and also the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes. Dr. Marchis ' talk will cover the latest insights into these multiple systems, such as the sizes and shapes of their components, their bulk-density and their orbital parameters, which are key to understanding how they formed and evolved. CSC/SETI Institute Colloquium Series—free and open to the public, and run from noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California. http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=592
2009 Feb 20 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 5:53 pm, 12% moon rise 4:59 am. Star party hours: 7:00 until 10:00 pm.
2009 Feb 20 -Fr- SJAA Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm. Jay Freeman speaks on Binoculars in astronomy.
2009 Feb 21 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 5:54 pm, 7% moon rise 5:32 am. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot has been reserved.
2009 February 21 11am Eliot Quataert - Black Holes: Monsters Lurking at the Centers of Galaxies, 145 Dwinelle - UC Berkeley IYA Public Talk - http://astro.berkeley.edu/iya
2009 February 23 - David Morrison, NASA Ames Research Center. Benjamin Dean Lecture Series in Astronomy, Morrison Planetarium, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Concourse Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118; 415-379-8000; deanseries@calacademy.org ; http://www.calacademy.org/events. Long-term habitability of our planet is linked to external as well as internal influences. In particular, cosmic impacts are now recognized as a major factor in the biological history of the Earth. Most dramatic was the discovery that the end-Cretaceous mass extinction of 65 million years ago was caused by the impact of an asteroid or comet. Now that we recognize the importance of impacts, we can consider ways to protect our planet from future cosmic disasters. The first step is the Spaceguard Survey to discover and characterize potentially threatening near-earth-asteroids. We are also beginning to study technologies that could deflect future impactors before they hit. For the first time in history, we humans have the capacity to predict, and perhaps avoid entirely, the sort of catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs. Adults $10, Seniors $8, California Academy of Sciences Members $5.
2009 FEB 23 Monday at 4:00 p.m. WHAT PHYSICISTS DO -- THE LIGHT, THE DARK, AND THE HOT GAS: DISSECTING GALAXY CLUSTERS - Dr. Anja von der Linden of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and Stanford University will explain how multi-wavelength observations of galaxy clusters can reveal the properties of dark matter, and how they can constrain cosmological parameters. Sonoma State University Darwin 103, Coffee at 3:30 p.m. http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/wpd
2009/02/25. Interstellar and Early Solar System Organics in Samples from Comet Wild 2. Scott Sandford, NASA Ames Space Science Division. The Stardust mission successfully returned samples from Comet Wild 2 in 2006. Studies of these samples have confirmed the presence of organics, some of which appear to be similar to those found in meteorites and some of which looks unlike anything seen in extraterrestrial materials before. The presence of D and 15N excesses in many of the organics suggests they have an interstellar chemical heritage. The nature of these organics, and their possible relationship to interstellar environments will be discussed. CSC/SETI Institute Colloquium Series—free and open to the public, and run from noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California. http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=592

March 2009

2009 Mar 4, 7pm. Steven Beckwith, former Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute - The Dawn of Creation: The First Two Billion Years. Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series.
2009/03/04. Discovery of Strong Cycles in Fossil Diversity. Richard Muller, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, UC Berkeley. Richard Muller and his collaborators have recently analyzed the most complete record of marine animal fossils ever compiled, the "Compendium" of Jack Sepkoski, which lists all known fossil marine animal genera back 542 million years. When the fossil diversity (number of distinct genera) is plotted, it shows a very strong 62 Myr cycle. The cycle is particularly evident in the species that endured for relatively short times, as shown in the diagram below (published in Nature, vol 434, 208-210, 10 March 2005). CSC/SETI Institute Colloquium Series—free and open to the public, and run from noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California. http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=592
2009 March 4, Wednesday, Hitoshi Murayama, Professor in the Department of Physics at UC Berkeley, and Director of the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at University of Tokyo - How Could We Survive the Big Bang?- East Bay Science Cafe held the first Wednesday of every month at Cafe Valparaiso at La Pena Cultural Center from 7 to 9pm. 3105 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705. http://bnhm.berkeley.edu/about/sciencecafe.php
2009 Mar 6 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 6:07 pm, 84% moon sets 4:20 am. Star party hours: 7:00 until 10:00 pm.
2009 Mar 6 -Fr- SJAA Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm, Topic to be announced.
2009 March 6. 7:30 pm. SPEAKER: Patricia Burchat, Chair, Department of Physics, Stanford University - TOPIC: The Dark Side of the Universe - A 21st Century View of the Universe: Dark Matter and Dark Energy. TIME: SCAS General Meeting Friday March 6, 7:30 pm, speaker at 8:00pm. WHERE: San Mateo County Astronomical Society/College of San Mateo/
The CSM Planetarium(for map). 1700 W. Hillsdale Blvd. San Mateo, CA 94402. Free and open to the public.
2009 Mar 7 -Sa- SJAA General Meeting. Our speaker is Dr. Kevin Zahnle of NASA/Ames, speaking on the Earth After the Moon-Forming Impact Board meeting at 6:30; General Meeting at 8:00
2009 March 7, 9:30AM Northern California Historical Astronomy Luncheon and Discussion
Association(NCHALADA) 87th meeting - discussions on historical astronomy held in the Board Room at Chabot Space and Science Center http://www.nchalada.org. Chabot Space & Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Morning discussion, 10 - 12:30: Constellations of Middle and South America. Chair: John Westfall, Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers; Lunch probably at Harry's Hofbrau or Home Town Buffet, then a brief business meeting. Afternoon discussion, 2 - 5 PM: The Other Moons of the Solar System Chair: Nancy K. Cox, San Francisco Amateur Astronomers.Contact Norm Sperling, Editor, "The Journal of Irreproducible Results" http://www.jir.com; http://www.everythingintheuniv.com
2009 Mar 8, 8PM Sunday San Jose Astronomical Association - Houge Park. General Meeting. Our speaker is Dr. Kevin Zahnle of NASA Ames. Topic: Earth After the Moon-Forming Impact
Board meeting at 6:30; General Meeting at 8:00
2009 March 8, Sunday. Eastbay Astronomical Society's 2009 Annual Awards Dinner. Doors Open 5:45 pm. Dinner from 6:30÷8:00 pm. Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland, CA
2009 Mar 8 -Su- 2 am. DST begins. Advance clocks 1 hour.
2009/03/11. Tools for Probing the Universe: from the Smallest to Largest and All Scales In Between. Jeffrey Scargle, NASA Ames Space Science Division. Jeff Scargle will describe non-standard data analysis methods for extracting scientific information from time series and other data. Examples include large scale structure in the distribution of galaxies, detection of extrasolar planets, "meta-analysis" of clinical studies and psychic phenomena, variability of Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope sources, and the search for quantum gravity effects at the smallest possible space-time scales. CSC/SETI Institute Colloquium Series—free and open to the public, and run from noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California. http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=592
2009 Mar 13, 8-10 pm Sonoma State Univ Observatory Public Viewing Night - The Orion Nebula and the Beehive Cluster. (707) 664 - 2267; http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/observatory/pvn.html
2009 March 16th-28th, IYA GLOBE at Night project - http://www.globe.gov/GaN/
2009 March 16 Mon 7:30pm - Sandra Faber, University of California, Santa Cruz/Lick Observatory. Benjamin Dean Lecture Series in Astronomy, Morrison Planetarium, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Concourse Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118; 415-379-8000; deanseries@calacademy.org ; http://www.calacademy.org/events. Dr. Faber will tour the Universe using the most beautiful and notable images from the Hubble Space Telescope and will use these as a springboard to discuss the impact that modern astronomical images have had on our thinking about the history of our species and its role and future in the Universe. Adults $10, Seniors $8, California Academy of Sciences Members $5.
2009/03/18. Google Earth, now with Mars!. Ross A. Beyer, SETI Institute and NASA Ames. Google, Inc., has released Google Earth 5.0 which contains a Mars 3D mode. Working with engineers at Google, we helped collect, parse, and organize the vast store of Mars geospatial data available to the public into a form that could be used by Google Earth. The Mars mode presents data acquired both from orbit and on the surface, presented fully integrated into the Google Earth geospatial browser. Ross will cover a brief history of the project, take you on a detailed tour of all of the features, and answer your questions about using Mars mode for science, education, or fun, as well as answering questions about how to view your own data in the client. The team behind this talk includes NASA Ames engineers Matt Hancher and Michael Broxton. CSC/SETI Institute Colloquium Series—free and open to the public, and run from noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California. http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=592
2009 Mar 20 -Fr- Spring begins at 4:44 am, PDT
2009 Mar 20 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 7:20 pm, 25% moon rise 4:30 am. Star party hours: 8:30 until 11:30 pm.
2009 Mar 21 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 7:21 pm, 17% moon rise 5:01 am.
2009 March 21 11am - UC Berkeley Astronomy Department IYA Lecture - Dan Werthimer Is Anybody Out There? Searching for ET with Help from 8 Million Volunteers - in Genetics and Plant Biology Building, Room 100 - http://astro.berkeley.edu/iya
2009 MAR 23 Monday at 4:00 p.m. WHAT PHYSICISTS DO -- EXPLORING THE EXTREME UNIVERSE WITH FERMI - Dr. Lynn Cominsky of Sonoma State University will describe recent discoveries from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which is observing black holes, exploding stars and more! Sonoma State University Darwin 103, Coffee at 3:30 p.m. http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/wpd
2009 Mar 27 -Fr- SJAA Coe has been requested for an additional MM night. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Mar 28 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 7:27 pm, 8% moon sets 10:12 pm. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot has been reserved. This is the recomended weekend for a Messier Marathon. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 MAR 30 Monday at 4:00 p.m. WHAT PHYSICISTS DO -- ENERGY RESEARCH IN DENMARK - Jeremy Hieb (’03) of the University of California, Santa Cruz and Zero Motorcycles will discuss renewable energy research in Denmark–including wind, solar, bioenergy, electric vehicles, hydrogen micro-grids, and smart grids for a sustainable biosphere. Sonoma State University Darwin 103, Coffee at 3:30 p.m. http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/wpd

April, 2009

2009/04/01. Weathering on Icy Satellites: Probing the Near Surface Using Infrared Spectroscopy. Rachel Mastrapa, NASA Ames Space Sciences Division and SETI Institute. Infrared spectra of icy satellites contain information about the surface composition and the phase state of those materials. For example, the phase of H2O-ice can be used to interpret the temperature and radiation history of an icy surface. Optical constants derived from laboratory data are needed to create model spectra for comparison to observations and may lead to a new understanding of surface processes. CSC/SETI Institute Colloquium Series—free and open to the public, and run from noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California. http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=592

2009 April 2-5. International Year of Astronomy (IYA): 100 Hours of Astronomy

Amateur Astronomers around the world will be out on the streets and in parks showing off the heavens to the public to celebrate "100 Hours of Astronomy", an event taking place this weekend, April 2-5. As part of a global effort to celebrate the 400 year anniversary of modern astronomy starting with Galileo in 1609, professional and amateur astronomers are setting up "star parties" where anyone can look through telescopes to see planets and stars. There will also be lectures, webcasts, and other types of events.

Streaming webcast - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/100-hours-of-astronomy
Sonoma State University sponsored events - http://www.sonoma.edu/pubs/newsrelease/archives/003406.html. See also flyer (PDF).
April 2–4 (Thur-Sat) from 7:30 until 9:30 pm. The San Francisco Amateur Astronomers (SFAA) will be setting up telescopes at Lands End in San Francisco for stargazing and learning about the skies. This is an especially good chance to have children see the wonders of the universe and get in touch with the night sky. The SFAA will set up each evening in the parking area above the Sutro Baths on Point Lobos near the Cliff House in San Francisco. For questions email csp@sfaa-astronomy.org or visit http://www.sfaa-astronomy.org/. There is no charge to attend this event. Visitors are encouraged to dress warmly.
April 2. The Astronomy Department at CCSF is sponsoring the following activities FOR IYA 100 Hours of Astrnomy:
1. Solar Observation at RAM Plaza (Noon- 2 PM)
2. Public Lecture - Location: Science 200 - Time: 2:15 PM - Title: Kepler's Hunt for Habitable Planets by Dr. Natalie Batalha, SJSU
3. More Solar Observation at CCSF Rooftop Observatory (3:30 - 5:00 PM)
4. Evening CCSF Observatory and Planetarium Open House (7:30 -9:30 PM)
5. Film Showing at Rosenberg Library 301 (7:30 - 8:30 PM)
April 2, 2009, 5:00 p.m. Gleeson Library Associates at the University of San Francisco Presents: Speaker: Nick Kanas, M.D., University of San Francisco. Topic: Mapping the Heavens from Antiquity to Today. Location: Donohue Rare Book Room, on the third floor of the Library, opposite the north elevator, 2495 Golden Gate Avenue San Francisco, CA 94117-1049 Parking is available on the street. Gleeson Library/ Geschke Center University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California. Nick Kanas's book, Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography, will be available for purchase at the reception. For more information call 415 422 2036.
Apr 2, 6-10 pm. California Academy of Sciences' "Night Life." Telescopic viewing of the sky is a regular activity, weather-permitting, during the Academy's "Night Life" program (Thursdays, 6-10pm). A remote-link to Sonoma State University's GORT facility (GLAST Optical Robotic Telescope) will allow visitors to observe Dr. Kevin McLin of Sonoma State operate the telescope from 65 miles away and view real-time images of the universe taken through the telescope. For information & directions, visit http://www.calacademy.org. Advance tickets advised.
Apr 3, 9-11 pm Sonoma State Univ Observatory Public Viewing Night - Saturn and the Moon, a worldwide observing event. (707) 664 - 2267; http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/observatory/pvn.html
Apr 3 and 4, 07.30 - 10.30 Public Telescope Viewing; Chabot Space & Science Center - Oakland
Apr 3 (Fri) 8:30 until 11:30 pm. The San Jose Astronomical Association public observing session on the grounds at Houge Park in San Jose. Featured will be Saturn, the biggish 68% moon, and other show objects of the early spring sky. For directions, see http://www.sjaa.net/directions.html#Houge_Park.
Apr 3 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 7:32 pm, 69% moon sets 3:57 am. Star party hours: 8:30 until 11:30 pm. http://www.sjaa.net
April 3–4. The “Around the World in 80 Telescopes” Webcast - The SETI Institute and the University of California, Berkeley are participating jointly from the Allen Telescope Array in "Around the World in 80 Telescopes". The Kepler Mission is also participating in the same webcast event. The Allen Telescope Array has the 4:40 - 5:00 PM time slot on Friday, April 3. They hope to have live presentations from both the observatory and the Institute's "control room" cubicle. Jill Tarter will speak from the Institute and Garrett Keating of UC Berkeley will speak from the observatory. Sonoma State University is part of the operations of the Fermi and Swift spacecraft, which will also participate in the 80 Telescopes web cast.
Apr 4 -Sa- SJAA Auction rehearsal, 6 pm until it all works. http://www.sjaa.net
Apr 4, Lawrence Hall of Science Stargazing - http://www.lhs.berkeley.edu/planetarium/SatNightStars.html
Apr 4, 12.00–22.00 Astronomy Open House at CCSF; City College of San Francisco - San Francisco
Apr. 4. 8–11 pm. Star Party at Foothill College, sponsored by Foothill College and the Peninsula Astronomical Society. Foothill College Observatory in Los Altos Hills, provided the sky is clear. The 16-inch college telescope will be open for viewing and members of the Society will bring their own telescopes as well. Parking on campus costs $2.00. The Foothill Observatory is near Parking Lot 4 on campus. For directions, see: http://www.foothill.edu/news/maps.html
2009 Apr 4, 6-10 pm. California Academy of Sciences' "Night Life." Telescopic viewing of the sky is a regular activity, weather-permitting, during the Academy's "Night Life" program (Thursdays, 6-10pm).
April 4, Astronomy Family FUN Day, 4 - 11 PM on College of San Mateo (CSM)'s campus, co-sponsored by SMCAS and CSM. It will consist of astro demonstrations, planisphere making, a solar system model, planetarium shows with our one of a kind GOTO CHRONOS Hybrid planetarium. From 8 to 11 PM, there will be "Jazz Under the Stars" with music from KCSM radio on our rooftop observatory. View the moon, Saturn, colorful double stars, and whatever else is cool!
Apr 5 -Su- SJAA Auction XXIX - SJAA Open at noon, selling 1:00 to about 4:00. In the hall at Houge Park. NOTE: Sunday, daytime. http://www.sjaa.net

2009 April 6 Mon 7:30 pm - Geoff Marcy, University of California, Berkeley. Benjamin Dean Lecture Series in Astronomy, Morrison Planetarium, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Concourse Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118; 415-379-8000; deanseries@calacademy.org ; http://www.calacademy.org/events. Science fiction assumes that our Milky Way Galaxy abounds with habitable planets populated by advanced civilizations engaged in interstellar commerce and conflict. Back in our real universe, Earth-like planets and alien life have proved elusive. Has science fiction led us astray? In 2009, astronomers will launch the first searches for Earth-like worlds around other stars, using bizarre, extreme telescopes for the task. These telescopes fundamentally supersede Galileo's historic little scope for the first time. A wild race for signs of inhabited worlds and extraterrestrial life is about to begin. Adults $10, Seniors $8, California Academy of Sciences Members $5.
2009 APR 6 Monday at 4:00 p.m. WHAT PHYSICISTS DO -- WHISPERS IN THE DARK - Dr. Jodi Cooley of Stanford University will tell us how a group of physicists from the U.S. and Canada are searching for dark matter by listening for faint whispers of their interactions in the CDMS detector located in the Soudan Underground Laboratory in Minnesota. Sonoma State University Darwin 103, Coffee at 3:30 p.m. http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/wpd
2009/04/08. Convergent evolution of our own and extra-terrestrial intelligence. John McCarthy, Professor Emeritus, Computer Science Stanford University. Convergent evolution is the phenomenon of two or more species of widely different origins evolving extremely similar features in response to the same environmental opportunity. Our intelligence and that of aliens with whom we might communicate are likely to have converged considerably and to converge further in the future. Much of this future convergence is likely to be artificial, i.e. electronic. Professor McCarthy will discuss some possibilities. CSC/SETI Institute Colloquium Series—free and open to the public, and run from noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California. http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=592
2009/04/15. The Dynamic Lunar Environment. Jasper Halekas, UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. The lunar environment, serene and unchanging to the naked eye, seethes with plasma and electromagnetic activity. Plasma, photons, micrometeorites and energetic particles constantly bombard the lunar surface, producing a tenuous exosphere and a dynamic wake region, and charging the surface to electrostatic potentials reaching kilovolts, producing surface electric fields large enough to affect lunar ions and dust. Meanwhile, plasma interacts directly with crustal magnetic fields, producing perhaps the smallest magnetospheres in the solar system. Dr. Halekas will talk about how the Moon provides an ideal laboratory to study a variety of fundamental physics processes which are both interesting in their own right, and potentially applicable to Mars and other planets in the solar system.
2009 Apr 17 -Fr- SJAA Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm. Pete Santangeli will speak on imaging for beginners. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Apr 17 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 7:45 pm, 42% moon rises 3:00 am. Star party hours: 9:00 until midnight. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Apr 18 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 7:46 pm, 33% moon rises 3:28 am. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 April 18 UC Berkeley Astronomy Department IYA Lectures - Cal Day - Chung-Pei Ma The Dark Side of the Universe
Steve Stahler Why Are There Stars? New Answers to an Old Question - http://astro.berkeley.edu/iya
2009 APR 20 Monday at 4:00 p.m. WHAT PHYSICISTS DO -- COSMIC COLLIDERS - Dr. Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz of the University of California, Santa Cruz will show how observations of the interplay between black holes, neutron stars and other objects in dense stellar systems allow us to draw firm conclusions about the properties of these extreme forms of matter. Sonoma State University Darwin 103, Coffee at 3:30 p.m. http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/wpd
2009/04/22. First Things in the Universe. Tom Abel, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology Laboratory, Stanford University. The first structure to form in the Universe can now be predicted from ab initio simulations starting with the known initial conditions of our Universe. What is found is a rich history with massive stars, black holes, UV radiation, and hydrogen molecules among others playing significant roles. Using supercomputer simulations allows us to visually show the origin of the first stars, their demise and impact on their future, which is our past, in the Universe' first billion years. CSC/SETI Institute Colloquium Series—free and open to the public, and run from noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California. http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=592
2009 Apr 22, 7 pm, Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures: Dr. Margaret Race, one of the leading experts on the contamination danger and the protection of planets - Planetary Protection and Hitchhikers in the Solar System: The Danger of Mingling Microbes. In this timely talk, Dr. Race will give a behind-the-scenes view of "environmental management" planning for solar system missions, and explain the role of the Outer Space Treaty and other related national and international policies. She will also discuss the varied societal issues likely to arise from discoveries about life beyond the Earth -- issues about the meaning of life, its future evolutionary trajectory, and environmental sustainability in the universe. Dr. Race is an ecologist at the SETI Institute who works with NASA and the international space community to develop, refine, and apply planetary protection policies to missions to the planets.
2009 Apr 25 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 7:52 pm, 2% moon sets 9:07 pm. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot has been reserved. http://www.sjaa.net
http://www.sjaa.net
2009 APR 27 Monday at 4:00 p.m. WHAT PHYSICISTS DO -- THE ACOUSTICS OF BAROQUE BASSOONS - Dr. Bryant Hichwa of Sonoma State University will describe the physical acoustics of 250-year-old bassoons and show that mathematical models based on examination of museum bassoons reveal interesting societal cultural differences. Sonoma State University Darwin 103, Coffee at 3:30 p.m. http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/wpd

May, 2009

2009 May 1, 9-11 pm Sonoma State Univ Observatory Public Viewing Night - The Whirlpool Galaxy, Saturn and the Moon. (707) 664 - 2267; http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/observatory/pvn.html
2009 May 1 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 7:58 pm, 56% moon sets 2:32 am. Star party hours: 9:00 until midnight This is also SJAA's observation of Astronomy Day. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 May 2 8:00pm John Dillon, Randall Museum - “The Autopsy of Heaven: Galileo, Telescopes and the Beginning of Modern Science” - Mt. Tamalpais State Park Astronomy Program - 400 years ago when Galileo announced his telescopic discoveries, the story goes, he threw off the yoke of the ancient Greeks and challenged the authority of the Church – thus opening the way for “modern” Science. John Dillon will take a longer view of the history of science and explore a subtler, more complex, relationship between Galileo, telescopes, Science and the Church. http://www.mttam.net/Default.aspx?tabid=843
2009 MAY 4 Monday at 4:00 p.m. WHAT PHYSICISTS DO -- THIRTY-NINE YEARS OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY AT SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY - Dr. Joseph S. Tenn of Sonoma State University will conclude his career with some reflections on his activities and the changes he has seen. Sonoma State University Darwin 103, Coffee at 3:30 p.m. http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/wpd
2009 May 4 Mon 7:30 pm - Jill Tarter, SETI Institute. Benjamin Dean Lecture Series in Astronomy, Morrison Planetarium, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Concourse Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118; 415-379-8000; deanseries@calacademy.org ; http://www.calacademy.org/events Throughout recorded history, humans have looked at the sky and wondered whether others exist elsewhere. Until the middle of the 20th century, there was little we could do except ask the priests, philosophers, or other wise individuals what we should believe. Today we have new observational tools that allow us to try to do experiments to shed light on the problem. This lecture summarizes the scientific exploration for extraterrestrial intelligence, and highlights the newest telescopes that may just provide an answer. Adults $10, Seniors $8, California Academy of Sciences Members $5.
2009/05/06. Aerosol particle roles in climate change: How coordinated measurements from aircraft, satellites, & Earth surfaces are helping to reduce uncertainties. Philip Russell, NASA Ames Earth Science Division. The 2007 assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that uncertainty in radiative forcing of climate had been reduced compared to the previous assessment, a result of improved understanding of aerosol radiative effects. This talk shows how field experiments by NASA and collaborators, which coordinate measurements from aircraft, satellites, and Earth's surfaces, have contributed to that improved understanding. Dr. Russell will talk about early results from the recent ARCTAS experiment in the Arctic and a look at the future, including next-generation satellites and advanced aircraft such as the Global Hawk. CSC/SETI Institute Colloquium Series—free and open to the public, and run from noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California. http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=592
2009 May 7 Thur 4pm. The Cosmic Star Formation and Metallicity History of Galaxies - LeConte Hall, UC Berkeley Observing the star formation rate and metallicity since the earliest times in the universe is crucial to understanding galaxy formation and evolution. Current cosmic star formation history studies are plagued by significant discrepancies between star formation rate estimates and different wavelengths. I apply the new generation of stellar population synthesis and photoionization models and show that metallicity is key to resolving the star formation rate discrepancies. Although the cosmic star formation history has been studied extensively, our understanding of the metallicity history of star-forming galaxies is still largely theoretical. I present the results of our large ongoing observational investigation into metallicity history of star-forming galaxies between 0<z<1, and initial results from our new program to use gravitational lensing to probe metallicities in galaxies at z>1. I compare our observed metallicity history with predictions from cosmological hydrodynamic simulations, and discuss the future directions for our star formation and metallicity history research. The goal of this research program is to gain a simultaneous observational understanding of the gas- phase metallicity and star formation history of galaxies between 0<z<3 to confront chemical evolution models.
2009 May 7 Thurs 6PM Nightlife: DJ Mancub, Astronomy, & Dancing to the roof -California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco DJ Mancub, of the world famous Space Cowboys and San Francisco‚s Sleevin Records, provides the music. Capacitor, a San Francisco-based interdisciplinary dance company, performs „Urban Canopy,‰ a piece inspired by the Academy‚s living roof, in the Piazza at 8 pm. Also, expect some programming featuring beautiful astronomy imagery. Every Thursday, the Academy is transformed into a lively venue filled with music, provocative science, mingling, and cocktails, for visitors 21 and older. Activities and performers change week to week.
2009 May 8 Fri 7:30PM Peninsula Astronomical Society mtg. Circumstellar Disks and Extrasolar planets. Dr. Paul Kalas of UC Berkeley. Foothill Community College in Los Altos Hills in Rm 8402, Bldg. 8400 next to Parking Lot#8 near the entrance to the College. The lecture will emphasize Dr. Kalas's work on high resolution imaging and other investigations of circumstellar disks around neighboring stars and their formation and evolution. A very important result from this work was the announcement last year of one of two confirmed direct images of extra solar planets.
2009 May 9 Saturday, 7:30PM East Bay Astromical Society mtg. Speaker: Dr. Jeffrey Oishi UC Berkeley - "From Stardust to Planets via Silicon: Computer Experiments and Planet Formation" Place: Physics Lab, 2nd Flr Dellums Building Chabot Space & Science Center 10000 Skyline Blvd Oakland
2009 May 9 Sat 8PM SJAA General Meeting Featuring guest speaker Dr. Christopher Mauche The X-ray Universe in the hall at Houge Park, San Jose http://www.sjaa.net/ for mor information
2009 May 9 -Sa- SJAA General Meeting. Our speaker is Dr. Christopher Mauche (LLNL), who will speak on The X-ray Universe. Board meeting at 6:30; General Meeting at 8:00 http://www.sjaa.net
2009 May 13 7:30 PM Sonoma County Astronomical Society. Norm Sperling, Editor, The Journal of Irreproducible Results. Booksigning of Norm's latest book, "This Book Warps Space and Time" - Proctor Terrace School, Santa Rosa. http://www.sonomaskies.org/This_Months_Speaker.html
2009 May 15 -Fr- SJAA Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm. Topic to be announced. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 May 15 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 8:10 pm, 60% moon rises 1:28 am. Star party hours: 9:00 until midnight http://www.sjaa.net
2009 May 16 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 8:11 pm, 50% moon rises 1:55 am. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 May 16-17 Sat. 10AM-4PM- USGS - 9th Triennial Open House. Scientists at the USGS Menlo Park campus are leaders in research on earthquakes, water quality, volcanoes, coastal and marine geology, mineral and energy resources, geography, and the San Francisco Bay ecosystem. USGS Evening Public Lecture Series, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park
2009 May 16 Sat. 11AM James Graham: Imaging Extrasolar Planets 100 Genetics & Plant Biology Bldg., UC Berkeley James Graham, Chair of the UC Berkeley Astronomy Department, gives a public lecture on extrasolar planets. Graham was a member of a team of scientists who obtained the first visible-light images of an extrasolar planet with orbital motion around the star Fomalhaut, at a distance of 25 light years from Earth.
2009 May 16 Sat. 2-4 PM Take in both SETI and USGS! Join us at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California for a celebration of science and imagination! An interactive Family Science Faire at the SETI Institute at our Celebrating Science 2009 Family Science Faire, you will have the opportunity to meet SETI Institute scientists and discover what the future holds for SETI and astrobiology. Meet the father of SETI and author of the Drake Equation, Dr. Frank Drake. Visit the gift shop for a Drake Equation t-shirt and ask Dr. Drake himself to sign it! Hear Andrew Fraknoi speak at 2:30 on "Why Falling into a Black Hole would be a Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience". Selected as California's Professor of the Year in 2007, Mr. Fraknoi will be available between 2:45-3:30 to autograph his latest book, Disney Learning: Wonderful World of Space. Limited copies will be available in our gift shop. http://archive.seti.org/celebratingscience2009/ 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View. ADMISSION IS FREE! Register here http://archive.seti.org/celebratingscience2009/form2009.php reserve your spot early -- this event is very popular!
2009 May 20 Wed. 7:30PM Lecture: The Autopsy of Heaven San Francisco Amateur Astronomers 199 Museum Way San Francisco Please join the SFAA and the semi-retired Curator of the Randall Museum John Dillion present "The Autopsy of Heaven: Galileo, Telescopes, and the Beginning of Modern Science"
2009 May 20, Wednesday at 7 pm, Dr. Patricia Burchat of Stanford University will give a non-technical, illustrated talk on: The Dark Side of the Universe: Dark Matter and Dark Energy 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.
2009 May 20 7 pm. Norm Sperling, Editor, The Journal of Irreproducible Results. Booksigning of Norm's latest book, "This Book Warps Space and Time" - Diesel Book Store, 5433 College Avenue, Oakland.
2009 May 22-25 BayCon in Santa Clara (science fiction)
2009 May 23 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 8:16 pm, 0% moon rises 5:40 am. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot has been reserved. http://www.sjaa.net
2009/05/27. NEOs Ho!! The Asteroid Option. Robert Landis, NASA Ames Intelligent Systems Division. In late 2006, NASA's Constellation Program (CxP) sponsored a study to examine the feasibility of sending a piloted Orion spacecraft to a near-Earth Object (NEO). One of the significant advantages of this type of mission is that it strengthens and validates the foundational infrastructure of the United States Space Exploration Policy and his highly complementary to NASA's planned lunar sortie and outpost missions circa 2020. Rob Landis will discuss how human expedition to a NEO would not only underline the broad utility of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and Ares launch systems, but would also be the first human expedition to an interplanetary body beyond the Earth-Moon system. CSC/SETI Institute Colloquium Series—free and open to the public, and run from noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California. http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=592
2009 May 29 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 8:21 pm, 41% moon sets 1:05 am. Star party hours: 9:30 until midnight http://www.sjaa.net
2009 May 28 7:00 PM. Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography.UCSF Professor and NASA-funded researcher, Dr. Nick Kanas provides a fascinating look at the night sky and answers such stellar questions as: How have different cultures made sense of the night sky? What led to the development of the great star and constellation atlases? What has been the impact of the telescope on celestial mapping? Larkspur Library 400 Magnolia Ave Larkspur, CA
2009 May 29. application deadline Project ASTRO--connecting amateur and professional astronomers with teachers and students in 3rd – 9th grade classrooms. All participants are required to attend a 2-day workshop to be held August 7 & 8, 2009, at the San Mateo County Office of Education in Redwood City. APPLY ONLINE by MAY 29th: http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astro/bayarea/volunteer.html CONTACT: Allyson Clark, Project ASTRO Coordinator Email: bayareaastro@astrosociety.org MORE INFORMATION: http://www.astrosociety.org/baprojectastro.html
2009 May 30 8:30pm Kenneth Frank, Astronomical Society of the Pacific - “Your Other Address: Where We Are in the Universe" - Mt. Tamalpais State Park Astronomy Program - Our view of where we live is one which most of us don't think about. OK, Kenneth Frank knows he has a 94920 address on the Tiburon Peninsula, and if he takes out a AAA map or browses Google online he gets a better idea of where he lives. But what else defines where we are situated? In this talk he seeks to inform the audience of where we are on a grander scale and find that sense of place that we call home. http://www.mttam.net/Default.aspx?tabid=843

June, 2009

2009 June 1 Mon 7:30 pm - David Des Marais, NASA Ames Research Center. Benjamin Dean Lecture Series in Astronomy, Morrison Planetarium, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Concourse Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118; 415-379-8000; deanseries@calacademy.org ; http://www.calacademy.org/events. Mars is the planet in our solar system whose past climate most closely resembled our own. Recent missions have revealed richly fascinating landscapes and deeply important discoveries. Mars might have supported life sometime in the past, and perhaps supports life even today. Adults $10, Seniors $8, California Academy of Sciences Members $5.
2009/06/03. Field Testing of Utility Robots for Lunar Surface Operations. Terry Fong, Intelligent Robotics Group, NASA Ames Research Center. Since 2004, NASA has been working to return to the Moon. In contrast to the Apollo missions, two key objectives of the current exploration program are to establish surface infrastructure and an outpost. Achieving these objectives will enable long-duration stays and long-distance exploration of the Moon. To do this, robotic systems will be needed to perform tasks which cannot, or should not, be performed by crew alone. In this talk, I summarize our work at NASA Ames to develop "utility robots" for lunar surface operations, present results and lessons learned from field testing, and discuss directions for future research. CSC/SETI Institute Colloquium Series—free and open to the public, and run from noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California. http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=592
2009 June 5 7:30 pm. San Mateo County Astronomical Society. Norm Sperling, Editor, The Journal of Irreproducible Results. Booksigning of Norm's latest book, "This Book Warps Space and Time" - College of San Mateo planetarium.
2009 Jun 6 -Sa- SJAA General Meeting. Our speaker is our own Rod Norden (SJAA) who will tell us about the Pioneer 10-11 missions Board meeting at 6:30; General Meeting at 8:00 http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Jun 12 -Fr- SJAA Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm. Topic to be announced. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Jun 12 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 8:29 pm, 75% moon rise 11:56 am. Star party hours: 9:30 until midnight http://www.sjaa.net
2009 June 19-20 Yosemite Star Party hosted by Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society (SVAS)
2009 June 20, 11 am, Nathan Smith, Live Fast - Die Young: Monster Stars and their Temper Tantrums - 100 GPB - UC Berkeley Astronomy Dept IYA Public Talk - http://astro.berkeley.edu/iya
2009 Jun 20 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 8:31 pm, 3 moon rises 4:19 am. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot has been reserved. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Jun 20 -Sa- Summer begins at 10:45 pm PDT
2009 Jun 26 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 8:32 pm, 26% moon sets 11:35 pm. Star party hours: 9:30 until midnight http://www.sjaa.net
2009 June 26,27 Yosemite Star Party
2009 June 27 8:30pm Professor Lynn R. Cominsky, Sonoma State University - “Exploring the Extreme Universe with Fermi” - Mt. Tamalpais State Park Astronomy Program - NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly known as GLAST) mission is exploring the most energetic and exotic objects in the cosmos: blazing galaxies, intense stellar explosion and super-massive block holes. Fermi probes the Universe on scales from the infinite to the infinitesimal, and future observations may shed light on the nature of dark matter. http://www.mttam.net/Default.aspx?tabid=843
2009 Jun 27 8:00pm Clusters of Stars: Baby stars, ancient stars. Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society public astronomy programs on Mt. Diablo. Take a tour through the telescopes and find out about the lifecycles of stars. More info at http://www.mdas.net/publicprogram/publicprogram.htm or call Mt. Diablo State Park - 925-837-2525

July, 2009

2009 Jul 9 Thursday, at 6:30 p.m. The Top Tourist Sights of the Solar System: Where Bill Gates' Great-Granddaughter Might Go on Her Honeymoon. Astronomer and popular lecturer Andrew Fraknoi. In the Sunnyvale Library program room, 665 West Olive Ave., across from City Hall. A limited number of tickets available free at the Adult Reference Desk. The illustrated tour will include the 4,000 mile lava channel on Venus, the towering Mount Olympus volcano on Mars (three times the height of Mount Everest), the awesome Verona Cliffs on the moon Miranda (which are the tallest "lover's leap" in the solar system), and the mysterious ice-cracks of the moon Europa, under which may be a global ocean. http://www.sunnyvalelibrary.org or call the Reference Desk at (408) 730-7300.
2009 Jul 11 -Sa- SJAA General Meeting. Our speaker is Norm Sperling, based on his new book, "This Book Warps Space and Time". Board meeting at 6:30; General Meeting at 8:00 http://www.sjaa.net
2009 July 10-11 Yosemite Star Party hosted by Santa Cruz Astronomy Club
2009 Jul 17 -Fr- SJAA Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm. Topic to be announced. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Jul 17 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 8:27 pm, 19% moon rises 2:03 am. Star party hours: 9:30 until midnight http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Jul 18 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 8:26 pm, 11% moon rises 3:01 am. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 July 17,18 Yosemite Star Party hosted by San Jose Astronomical Association
2009 July 18, 11 am. Roger Hahn - A Troublesome Pioneer: Galileo Galilei - 100 GPB - UC Berkeley Astronomy Dept IYA Public Talk - http://astro.berkeley.edu/iya
2009 July 24-25 Yosemite Star Party hosted by San Francisco Amateur Astronomers
2009 Jul 25 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 8:21 pm, 23% moon sets 10:31 pm. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot has been reserved. AANC Star-B-Q at Fremont Peak State Park http://www.sjaa.net
2009 July 25 8:30pm Dr. Natalie Batalha, San Jose State University - "Kepler’s Hunt for Habitable Planets" - Mt. Tamalpais State Park Astronomy Program - NASA's Kepler Mission has begun its 3.5-year quest for habitable planets like Earth in our galaxy. Dr. Batalha will describe how and where the spacecraft will look for planets we might call home and what to expect in the coming years as we work to understand whether Earth-like planets in our galaxy are common or rare. http://www.mttam.net/Default.aspx?tabid=843
2009 Jul 31 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 8:16 pm, 81% moon sets 2:07 am. Star party hours: 9:00 until midnight http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Jul 25 8:00pm Black Holes: Where are the black holes in our Galaxy? Take home a map to their locations in the sky. Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society public astronomy programs on Mt. Diablo. More info at http://www.mdas.net/publicprogram/publicprogram.htm or call Mt. Diablo State Park - 925-837-2525
2009 July 28 Guest Speaker: Dr. Steven Beckwith - The Dawn of Creation - The First Two Billion Years. Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society free public meetings in Concord, CA - see www.mdas.net for directions/times). http://www.mdas.net
2009 July 31-Aug.1 Yosemite Star Party hosted by Central Valley Astronomers, Inc. & Tri-Valley Stargazers

August, 2009

2009 Aug 1 -Sa- SJAA General Meeting. Our speaker is Dr. To B. Announced. Board meeting at 6:30; General Meeting at 8:00 http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Aug 3. 7:30--9:00 pm. Benjamin Dean Lecture - Astrobiology, Planetary Protection, and Hitchikers in the Solar System
Margaret Race, SETI Institute. at Morrison Planetarium. This talk will provide a behind-the-scence view of how experts from many different disciplines contribute to searches for extraterrestrial life--and also explain how the Outer space Treaty and planetary protection policies urge "responsible exploration' when visiting other planets. The breadth and depth of pre-planning may surprise you. Reservations: Advance ticketing is recommended. Buy tickets online or call 800-794-7576 for reservations. Tickets may be purchased at the door, but there is no guarantee of availability. Adults $10, Seniors $8, Members $5.
2009 Aug 14 -Fr- SJAA Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm. Topic to be announced. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Aug 14 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 8:00 pm, 33% moon rise 12:47 am. Star party hours: 9:00 until midnight http://www.sjaa.net
2009 August 14,15 Yosemite Star Party hosted by Mount Diablo Astronomical Society
2009 Aug 15 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 7:59 pm, 22% moon rises 1:49 am. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Aug 15 7:30pm Rocks and Ice in the Solar System: Comets, meteors, and asteroids: how are they different, how are they related? We'll be cooking up a comet and giving you the recipe! Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society public astronomy programs on Mt. Diablo. More info at http://www.mdas.net/publicprogram/publicprogram.htm or call Mt. Diablo State Park - 925-837-2525
2009 August 21,22 Yosemite Star Party hosted by Peninsula Astronomical Society
2009 Aug 22 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 7:50 pm, 11% moon sets 8:58 pm. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot has been reserved. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Aug 22 8:30 pm Dr. Anthonly Colaprete, NASA-Ames Research Center - “Prospecting for Water on the Moon” - Mt. Tamalpais State Park Astronomy Program - In 2009, 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. http://www.mttam.net/Default.aspx?tabid=843
2009 Aug 28 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 7:42 pm, 68% moon sets 1:53 am. Star party hours: 8:30 until 11:30 pm http://www.sjaa.net
2009 August 28,29 Yosemite Star Party hosted by Sonoma County Astronomical Society (S.C.A.S.)

September, 2009

2009 Sep 5 -Sa- SJAA General Meeting. Slide and Equipment night. Latest images, latest equipment, being made by our members. Board meeting at 6:30; General Meeting at 8:00 http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Sep 11 -Fr- SJAA Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm. Topic to be announced. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Sep 11 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 7:21 pm, 48% moon rise 11:39 pm. Star party hours: 8:30 until 11:30 pm http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Sep 12 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 7:19 pm, 36% moon rise 12:44 am. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Sep 12 - 16. The 120th Anniversary Meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific: Science Education and Outreach: Forging a Path to the Future. Westin San Francisco Airport Hotel, Millbrae, California. Sat-Sun September 12-13: hands-on workshops for K-14 and informal science educators and Sunday afternoon talks on the search for life beyond Earth presented by leading scientists from the SETI Institute. Submit abstracts for 90-minute sessions, 10-minute oral papers, or poster papers. Sunday eve, September 13: opening reception. See http://www.astrosociety.org/events/meeting.html
2009 Sep 18, 8-10 pm Sonoma State Univ Observatory Public Viewing Night - A tour of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. (707) 664 - 2267; http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/observatory/pvn.html
2009 Sep 19 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 7:09 pm, 2% moon sets 7:25 pm. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot has been reserved. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 September 19 11am - UC Berkeley Astronomy Department IYA Lecture - Alex Filippenko Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe - in Genetics and Plant Biology Building, Room 100- UC Berkeley Astronomy Dept IYA Public Talk - http://astro.berkeley.edu/iya.
2009 Sep 19 8: 30pm Wil van Breugel, Ph.D, University of California Merced - “Astrobiology: What is Life & Where is It? - Mt. Tamalpais State Park Astronomy Program - Astrobiology combines astronomy, biology, physics and chemistry to investigate the origin and evolution of life in extreme environments, including early Earth, and guides the search for alien life on other planets in our Solar System and beyond. Dr. vanBreugel will discuss how our perception and understanding of life has evolved, and the close connection of life to the cosmos. http://www.mttam.net/Default.aspx?tabid=843
2009 Sep 22 -Tu- Autumn begins at 2:19 pm PDT
2009 September 22 Guest Speaker: Dr. Máté Ádámkovics, UC Berkeley. The Cassini Mission and the latest about Saturn's moon, Titan. Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society free public meetings in Concord, CA. http://www.mdas.net
2009 Sep 25 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 7:00 pm, 49% moon sets 11:40 pm. Star party hours: 8:00 until 11:00 pm http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Sep 26 6:30pm Planets & Moons: View Jupiter and its moons in the telescopes. Make a scale model of the Solar System to take home. Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society public astronomy programs on Mt. Diablo. More info at http://www.mdas.net/publicprogram/publicprogram.htm or call Mt. Diablo State Park - 925-837-2525

October, 2009

2009 Oct 3 -Sa- SJAA General Meeting. Our speaker is Dr. To B. Announced. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Oct 9 -Fr- SJAA Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm. Topic to be announced. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Oct 9 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 6:39 pm, 62% moon rise 10:37 pm. Star party hours: 7:30 until 10:30 pm http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Oct 10 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 6:37 pm, 51% moon rise 11:56 pm. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Oct 17 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 6:28 pm, 0% moon rises 7:57 am. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot has been reserved. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 October 17 11am - UC Berkeley Astronomy Department IYA Lecture - Imke de Pater - Fascinating Objects in our Solar System - in Genetics and Plant Biology Building, Room 100 UC Berkeley - http://astro.berkeley.edu/iya
2009 Oct 23 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 6:20 pm, 33% moon sets 10:26 pm. Star party hours: 7:30 until 10:30 pm http://www.sjaa.net
2008 Oct 24 Fall Astronomy Day
2009 Oct 24 7:30pm Professor Michael Dine, University of California Santa Cruz - “The Dawn of the LHC Era: The Convergence of Particle Physics and Astrophysics” - Mt. Tamalpais State Park Astronomy Program - Over the past year, the Large Hadron Collider, an extraordinary scientific instrument, has begun to operate in Geneva. It offers the possibility of answering some of the great questions we confront in understanding the universe, including the identity of the dark matter and the asymmetry between matter and antimatter. http://www.mttam.net/Default.aspx?tabid=843
2009 Oct 24 6:00pm Discovering New Worlds: Where are astronomers looking for habitable planets outside of the Solar System? How will NASA's Kepler Mission find them? Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society public astronomy programs on Mt. Diablo. More info at http://www.mdas.net/publicprogram/publicprogram.htm or call Mt. Diablo State Park - 925-837-2525

November, 2009

2009 Nov 1 -Su- SJAA 2 am. DST ends. Set clocks back 1 hour. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Nov 6 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 5:05 pm, 77% moon rises 8:38 pm. Star party hours: 7:00 until 10:00 pm http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Nov 6 -Fr- SJAA Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm. Topic to be announced. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Nov 7 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 5:04 pm, 66% moon rises 9:50 pm. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Nov 14 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 4:58 pm, 2% moon rises 5:48 am. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot has been reserved. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Nov 20 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 4:54 pm, 17% moon sets 8:13 pm. Star party hours: 7:00 until 10:00 pm http://www.sjaa.net
2009 November 21 11am - UC Berkeley Astronomy Department IYA Lecture - Maryam Modjaz - Cosmic Fireworks: The Explosive Deaths of Massive Stars - in Genetics and Plant Biology Building, Room 100, UC Berkeley - http://astro.berkeley.edu/iya
2009 Nov 28 -Sa- SJAA General Meeting. Our speaker is Dr. To B. Announced. Board meeting at 6:30; General Meeting at 8:00 http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Nov 29 -Su- SJAA Will there be a Fall Swap? Where? http://www.sjaa.net

December, 2009

2009 Dec 11 -Fr- SJAA Houge Park star party. Sset 4:50 pm, 16% moon rises 3:39 am. Star party hours: 7:00 until 10:00 pm http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Dec 11 -Fr- SJAA Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm. Topic to be announced. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Dec 12 -Sa- SJAA Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 4:51 pm, 9% moon rises 4:43 am. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot has been reserved. http://www.sjaa.net
2009 Dec 19 -Sa- SJAA General Meeting. Our speaker is Dr. To B. Announced. Board meeting at 6:30; General Meeting at 8:00 http://www.sjaa.net
2009 December 19 11am - UC Berkeley Astronomy Department IYA Lecture - Dick Plambeck - UC Berkeley - http://astro.berkeley.edu/iya
2009 Dec 21 -Mo- Winter begins at 9:47 am PST

January, 2010

oooo

Lecture series

Benjamin Dean Lecture Series info on the Cal Academy events page (look for the two drop-down menus in the middle of the page labelled "Type" and "View." Change "Type" to "Lectures" and change "View" to "Year.") For 2009 it's
http://www.calacademy.org/events/event_list.php?d=12&m=06&y=2009&v=y
Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures: 650-949-7888. Smithwick Theater, Foothill College, El Monte Road and Freeway 280, Los Altos Hills, California. Parking on campus costs $2. Co-sponsors: NASA Ames Research Center, The Foothill College Astronomy Program, The SETI Institute, The Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Past Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures in MP3 format at: http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast
CSC/SETI Institute Colloquium Series—free and open to the public, and run from noon to 1 pm on Wednesdays at the SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California. http://www.seti.org/Page.aspx?pid=592

Please send corrections or additions to:
Alan Gould <adgould@comcast.net>