May 9
7:45PM
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Past Meetings
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Past Presentations
2008
May: Joe B will give a talk on the trip to NYC and the surrounding area.
April: What's Out There by Curron Hill I will give a brief overview of most of the types of visual observations that Amateurs get into, Planetary, Deep Sky, Double Star, Meteor Showers, Comets, Solar Etc. I would also highlight each of the observing clubs associated with it from the Astronomical League. It would be from the Novice standpoint. I will cover some of the highlights of each for the year 2008.
March: "Veni, vidi, vici!" - "I came, I saw, I conquered!" It is doubtful that
Julius Caesar was an avid star gazer. But his famous motto can certainly
apply to the planned Mini Messier Marathon (MMM) coming up in early April.
But to conquer this short list of Messier objects, we must be prepared.
Through the use of Power Point and the Starry Night Pro planetarium program,
we will embark on a computer animated quest for these elusive wonders
throughout one virtual night. Starting at dusk and continuing through the
early morning hours, we will explore the facts, reveal some obscure details,
and share personal observations of these interesting MMM objects.
February: Joe will give an overview of the last 50 years of the US Space program.
2007
December:
November:
October: "Phone Home, E.T.: The Search for Life Elsewhere in the Universe"
For decades, people have gazed at the heavens and wondered: is anyone looking back? Since the discovery of the first extrasolar planets fifteen years ago, the astronomy community has been abuzz with the ever-growing possibility that we may find life elsewhere in the Universe within our lifetimes. What sort of conditions are required for life to arise? How are astronomers searching for life? How would we go about trying to communicate with another civilization? And why are we unlikely to ever succeed? Bring your curiosity - and your questions!
September: The club members will put together the materials for the BFSP. The club will provide pizza and soft drinks.
August: "Cold War Fusion" is about the interrelationship between rockets for war and rockets for space exploration. I'll cover the highlights of the history of rocketry, the history of the A-bomb, and how the two uses of rockets parallel each other to this day. I also show a clip from Kennedy's moon speech.
July: This year's picnic will be held at Neil's house.
July: We will have our picnic instead, Date TBA
June:
May: Greg will present a general proposal for a club group project that I think will be a lot of fun. It will have a number of fun aspects with a range of technical interest. So, regardless of your technical skill, you will be able to make a valuable contribution to this "mystery" project.
April: Chris Palma will give the second of a 2 part introduction to astronomy. More details to follow.
March: Chris Palma will give the first of a 2 part introduction to astronomy. Chris will cover the following topics: Motions in the Sky, and the Sun, Earth, and Moon System; Orbits and the Laws of Kepler and Newton; Electromagnetic Radiation and Astronomical Observations; The Properties of Stars and Stellar Classification; The Early Stages of Stellar Evolution; The Late Stages of Stellar Evolution; Star Clusters; The Milky Way Galaxy; Normal and Active Galaxies; Galaxy Environments and Interactions; The Big Bang and the Expanding Universe; The Inner Planets; The Outer Planets; Overview of the Solar System; Extrasolar Planets and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
February: In February 1997, the CPO had its first meeting. Please join the founders for a look over the last 10 years of the club.
January: You got a new telescope for the holidays, now what? This meeting is dedicated to very novice/beginners who have an interest in astronomy and the night sky. Club members will cover a variety of topics of interest to beginners. If you have any interest in astronomy, stop by and see what our club is all about. Refreshments will be served.
2006
December: Leisa Townsley - Leisa Townsley will speak on "The Making of a Great Observatory," chronicling NASA's 20-year effort to build and launch the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Leisa is a Senior Scientist in the PSU Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and for over a decade has been a member of the instrument team for Chandra's primary imaging camera, the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer.
November: Brendan Miller will review the current observational and theoretical
understanding of quasars (compact and luminous sources powered by accretion
onto supermassive black holes) and briefly discuss quasar absorption, outflows,
and jets. He will present the specific case of PG 1004+130, an unusual
radio-loud broad absorption line quasar with a hybrid radio morphology that was
recently discovered to show variable X-ray absorption and an X-ray jet. The talk
will include tips on obtaining, examining, and analyzing archival data. Brendan
is a fourth-year graduate student at Penn State currently researching the
multiwavelength properties of radio-loud quasars.
October: Neil Carlson - Setting Circle Procedures
This sound familiar?
After you you’ve got your scope all set up and the sky turns black, you look to your prepared list of targets
for the night, find the appropriate pages of your sky chart and search for your first object. After many long
minutes of star hopping you finally find that elusive faint fuzzy and log your catch. You go back to your
list and sky chart and…and…and… the unpredictable central PA clouds roll in and your observing time is
over for the night. Curses - Foiled again!
With such limited observing there‘s just got to be a way to maximize your time at the eyepiece. But if you
are pursuing your Messier certificate, you aren’t allowed to use a “go-to” telescope. What is one to do??
One answer is Setting Circles.
Neil Carlson will attempt to introduce you to the practical use of setting circles - those funny numbered
things on your equatorial mount or SCT scope. Manual use of setting circles is perfectly okay for your
Messier certificate, and when properly used can allow you to find and record many objects in just a few
minutes, or to dwell on an object longer instead of searching for it.
Using the club scope and his own SCT, Neil will illustrate the polar alignment and setting circle calibration
procedure. He will also illustrate his Digital Setting Circle equipment (verboten for Messier certificate)
which provides the “push-to” convenience of the most modern scopes, but at a fraction of the price of a
new go-to scope.
September: Kevin Luhman - Kevin Luhman is an assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy &
Astrophysics at Penn State. He studies the birth of stars, brown dwarfs,
and planets with optical and infrared telescopes on the ground and in
space, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope.
"Searching for Alien Worlds"
I will describe the methods that astronomers have used to search for
planets outside the solar system and summarize the major results from these
efforts. Research on this topic at Penn State will be highlighted,
including a new discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope that will be
(coincidentally) announced on September 7. I will also discuss issues relevant
to defining a "planet", both for our solar system and for extasolar planetary
systems.
August: This is our annual meeting to prepare for the Black Forest Star Party. We will be stuffing envelopes and getting the last minute details of the event settled.
July: CPO Picnic at Dave and Sue Spaugh's home.
June: Speaker: Brock Pronco
The Apollo space program was a very ambitious but short-lived effort to
extend humanity¹s presence beyond earth to the moon. America¹s prizes for
winning the Space Race were not moon bases or new natural resources, but
rather flags, footprints, and the first golf course with crater-sized holes.
For the next 26 years, human space exploration turned inward. Over 100 Space
Shuttle missions never ventured farther than about 200 miles from earth, the
distance from State College to New York City. Although shuttle missions
fostered useful space research, they never inspired the kind of ³space
fever² the Apollo missions did. Sadly, only the Challenger and Columbia
disasters caused the public to take notice of what was going on with the
Space Shuttle program.
The Second Space Age began in November 1998 when the first Russian-made ISS
module was launched by a multinational consortium, trying to establish a
permanent human presence in space. After eight years of cost overruns,
delays, and cutbacks in funding, the ISS has become more of a token symbol
of international cooperation than an orbiting laboratory for cutting-edge
research and a steppingstone to the solar system.
Frustrated by these setbacks, a small but dedicated group people within the
space community devised their own ³small steps² to help set humanity back on
track to becoming a space faring civilization, with or without the help of
NASA.
Frank Drake (SETI), Robert Zubrin (Mars Society), Jim Benson (SpaceDev),
Peter Diamondis (X-Prize), and Jim Burke (JPL) are some of the prominent
space luminaries that Penn State instructor Brock Pronko has talked with
over the past five years in his Space Colonization course.
In this presentation, Brock will discuss the life and work of some the
pioneers of the Second Space Age and play video and audio clips of them
speaking to his class at Penn State.
May: Title: "Planetary Nebulae in Spiral Galaxies: Shedding Light on Dark
Matter"
First of all, what's a planetary nebula? Next, why study spiral galaxies
and why use planetary nebulae? One reason to study spiral galaxies is to
learn about mysterious dark matter halos that are needed to solve the
missing mass problem. Unfortunately, little else is known about this
strange dark matter! This talk will answer the above questions and
explain the procedure I'm using for my Ph.D. thesis project to test a
basic assumption used by astronomers when studying dark matter halos. I
will cover the initial imaging, the follow-up spectroscopy and the
analysis, with lots of pretty pictures along the way!
Talk by Kim Herrmann
April: Gerry Santoro will be showing a brief video of the Black Forest Star Party, talking about his "Dog-Star" Observatory and talking about his Deep Sky Drawings.
March: canceled due to weather
February: Angela Phelps will be speaking about the NASA Space Grant Consortium. She will be dong a slide show presentation explaining what it is and what it does.
January: TBA
2005
June: Fred Thompson Engineering aspects of the Cassini Satellite and
Huygens Probe of Titan
May: Aaron Steffan X-ray Observations of Active Galaxies
April: Sally will be talking about the Swift Satellite Mission and sharing information on its progress. A business meeting will follow and snacks will be provided.
March: Michelle will be speaking about neutron stars and pulsars. A business meeting will follow and snacks will be provided.
February: Shane will be speaking about gravitational waves and their sources. A business meeting will follow and snacks will be provided.
January: Doug will be speaking about Amanda/Ice Cube South Pole Neutrino Detector.
A business meeting will follow and snacks will be provided.
2004
August: Professor Mercedes Richards from the Penn State Astronomy Department will present a talk dealing with Tomography and its Application to Astronomy.
A brief business meeting will follow. Also a surprise from the Night Sky Network.
June: Solar Astronomy and equipment needed for viewing will be discussed.
May: TBA
April: The April CPO meeting of the will feature a presentation on the kit we have
received from the Night Sky Network. Plans for the star party and upcoming events will also be discussed.
Refreshments and a brief business meeting will follow.
March: 
PSU Astronomer Chris Palma will discuss Colliding and Exploding galaxies.
This talk was originally scheduled for our February meeting.
February: February's meeting was cancelled due to inclement weather.
We will try to reschedule the planned talk "Colliding Galaxies and Cannibal Galaxies" by PSU Astronomer Chris Palma for a later meeting.
January: Meeting is cancelled due to Holiday
2003
December: Intracluster Stars - Stars Between the Galaxies
Patrick Durrell (Penn State University)
Over the past 10 years it has become apparent that large numbers of stars exist between the galaxies in large galaxy clusters. This talk will discuss the evidence for these objects, as well as current surveys to search for these objects in both the galaxy cluster and group environments. The talk will also outline the importance of these intergalactic `vagabonds', and what information they can provide us on the evolution of galaxies.
November: CPO club member Brian Panulla will speak about methods of propulsion for deep space exploration.
October: CPO club member Anthony Ferraro will give a talk "Optical telescopes and antennas: what are the similarities?"
The talk will compare the telescope and the radio antenna; covering such topics as resolution, constructing parabolic and spherical relflector antennas, correction for sperical abberation on spherical reflector antennas, tolerances, the collecting aperature of wire antennas.
September: CPO club members Debbie Benedetti and Gerry Hamilton will present the results of their exploration of solar observing. The details on what to see and how to see it will all be discussed.
August: At a mere 35 million miles, amateur astronomers are getting a once in an epoch chance to see our red neighbor when it's as big as it gets. Mars is usually closer to 60 million miles away. Please note that while Mars will be closest to Earth August 27, now is the time to look for detail on the surface because artian dust storms are expected to obscure the view next month(Gannett News Service).
Club members Brock Pronko and Greg Granville will give an overview of what to look for and when to see it (now!). Greg will also show us a program called Mars Previewer II.
We will also go over last minute details for our big annual event: the Black Forest Star Party.
June: Eric Marsh, CPO member and Associate Prof of Mechanical Engineering at the Penn State Machine Dynamics Research Lab, will give a talk titled "An Introduction to Telescope Optics." Eric will cover the fascinating principles of optical telescopes and explain commonly used optical terms like chromatic aberration, apochromat, ray-tracing, and 1/4 wave optics.
May: Topic TBA
April: Tom Abel, Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State, was on cover of December 2002 issue of Discover magazine. The story was about his research on how the first stars were born and how the early universe was transformed from darkness to light. Tom will give us a first-hand account of his research.
March: Penn State Astronomer Steinn Sigurdsson, who recently made headlines for finding two supermassive black holes that exist together in the same galaxy, will present a talk on gravitational wave research at 7 p.m., March 6, at the monthly meeting of the Central Pennsylvania Observers, held at South Hills Business School.
Dr. Sigurdsson will talk about the research being done at the Penn State Center for Gravitational Wave Physics and give us a preview of NASA's planned space-based detector, LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), which will search for gravitational waves.
February: Penn State astronomer Mike Eracleous will present a program titled "Mind-Bending Black Holes". The program will be similar to the public talk he gave earlier this year at the Friedman Lecture Series at Penn State, but with updated material for our members.
January: CPO member Brock Pronko will present
a program titled "Space Colonization at Penn State." Brock has assisted with
the space colonization courses at Penn State for the past three years and
helped organize the 2003 Frontiers of Science lecture series on space
colonization. Brock will present an overview of the topics covered in the space
colonization courses at Penn State and preview the Frontiers of Science
lecture series.
2002
December: MEETING CANCELLED
November: Penn State astronomer Robin Ciardullo will present a program titled "The Beauty and Power of Planetary Nebulae." Planetary nebulae are among the most beautiful objects in the sky. They are also among the most useful. Dr. Ciardullo will explain how planetary nebulae form, what makes them so special, and why they're so incredibly useful fo study- ing the evolution of stars, galaxies, and the universe.
October: This month's club meeting will be our annual star party wrap-up - presentations, discussions, and images.
If you have photos, slides, digital images, or videos you'd like to show at
the meeting, please let Brock know what format and how long you think showing
them will take so we can plan our time accordingly.
September: No meeting due to the Black Forest Star Party this weekend.
August: Jane Charlton, Associate Professor of Astronomy at Penn State, will present a PowerPoint program titled "A Brief History of the Universe."
July: Annual CPO Picnic.
June: Neil Carlson will present a slide show on images from the Hubble Space Telescope and talk about the recent upgrades that were made to the instrument.
May: Chris House, from the Penn State Astrobiology Institute, will give a talk on this field. Topic and title TBA.
April: Sarah Gallagher, who will be graduating this semester with a Ph.D. from the Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, will present a talk on "X-rays from Supermassive Black Holes." Sarah recently gave a talk on "Black Holes and Time Machines" for the Friedman lecture series at Penn State.
March: Tom Thwaites, CPO member and retired chemistry teacher, will discuss nuclear synthesis in stars as first theorized in a paper by Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler and Hoyle.
February: Dr. Chris Churchill, Penn State astronomer, will give a talk on "Life in the Universe," explaining the ramifications of the Drake Equation in predicting the number of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy.
January: TBA
2001
December: "Finding Our Place in the Galaxy." CPO member Brian Panulla will give discuss the efforts early in the last century to pinpoint our solar system's location in the galaxy, focusing on Harlow Shapley's work with Globular Clusters.
November: Bill Gartner, CPO member and professional meteorologist, will present an overview of the "weather" on the individual planets of our solar system, why it happens and how it compares to weather here on Earth.
October: Penn State astronomer Dr. Donald Schneider will give a presentation entitled "The Fate of the Universe: Fire or Ice?"
September: Astrophotography Show & Tell. Club members will show their astrophotos and talk about their experiences capturing sky objects on film.
August: "Target Earth: Asteroids, Comets, and the Impact Hazard" by Penn State astronomer Phil Martell. Dr. Martell's talk will cover a variety of
topics including: crater formation; rate of crater formation through time;
some notable craters on Earth; the population of asteroids and comets in the
solar system, now and in the past; and the possible effects of large impacts
on Earth.
June: Amateur telescope maker Greg Granville will explain and demonstrate how to properly collimate your reflector telescope and star test it for optimal observing.
May: CPO members will show the photos they took during our astrophotography field trip and tell us about their experiences trying to capture solar system and deep sky objects on film.
April: Rob Cole and Charlie Miller will present a program on basic film astrophotography techniques. The first clear weekend after the talk members will take a field trip to a dark site to photograph objects in the solar system and deep sky. Date TBA.
March: Geologist Charlie Miller will discuss 50 different geologic features on the other planets and moons of the solar system and compare them to similar features on the Earth.
February: Penn State Ph.D. student Ann Hornschemeier will present a program on the Chandra mission and the history of the project (including a brief review of Hubble Deep Field-North science). Also included will be a description of the exciting new prospects for finally studying "normal" galaxies in the X-ray band.
January: CPO Member Ed Heinhold will help us ring in the New Year by discussing the latest theories about the origin of the mysterious Star of Bethlehem.
2000
December: James Pawelcyzk, astronaut and Professor of Physiology and Kinesiology at Penn State's Noll Lab, will talk on a space related topic to be announced.
November: Alex Wolszczan, Evan Pugh Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics at Penn State and the discoverer of the first extrasolar planets, will talk about these newly found denizens of the galaxy.
October: CPO Member Neil Carlson, who recently bagged his 70th Messier object and qualified for his Messier Certificate from the Astronomical League, will discuss the Celestial Coordinate System and explain how amateurs can find deep sky objects using setting circles.
September: Star Party Debriefing. Bring your photos and comments about this year's star party and suggestions for next year's event.
August:
July: No meeting (club picnic)
June: Dr. James Kasting spoke on the search for extraterrestrial life and his work on the Terrestrial Planet Finder Committee.
May: Dr. Eric Fiegelson spoke on Gamma and X-Ray Astronomy.
April: CPO Member Gerry Hamilton gave a talk on light polution with an emphasis on the Center Region. Greg Granville gave a short talk on the new club scope.
March: Dr. Lisa Brown, Associate Director of NASA's Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium, gave a talk entitled "Methane atmospheres on early Earth and Mars"
February: CPO Member Greg Granville spoke on the topic of optics and the nature of light and gave some hands-on demonstrations.
January: CPO Member Mike Coslo spoke about Charles Messier, the Messier catalog of objects, and the Messier Certificate program in preparation for spring Messier marathons.
1999
December: Roundtable discussion on the important astronomical discoveries or events that occurred in 1999.
November: CPO members Rob Cole and Gerry Hamilton gave a presentation on Spectroscopy. The topics covered included the history of spectroscopy, the basics of of spectroscopy, spectroscope principles of operation, emission/absorption phenomena, and some of the results that Gerry and Rob acheived with their equipment.
October: The CPO scope builders (Dave, Sara, Nagesh, Rick and Joe) gave a presentation on their experiences building home made scopes.
September: The focus of this meeting was to discuss the upcoming Black Forest Star Party
August: CPO member Mike Coslo gave a presentation entitled "An Observatory for the Central Pennsylvania Observers"
July: No meeting (club picnic)
June:
May: Eric Baker, a consulting engineer for Comprehensive Designs, spoke about Outdoor Lighting, Lighting Ordinaces, and their impact on Light Pollution.
April: Tom Dunham from the National Weather Service gave an interesting talk on Tornados and some of the reasons for the State College weather.
March:
February:
January: Round table discussion of the following topics: (1) Interesting facts about the moon. (2) equatorial mounts. (3) double eclipse of Jupiter's moons. (4) current events in space exploration.
1998
December: Slide show that we won at Astroblast
November: Review of the Astronomical League certificate program
October: All business meeting (constitution, etc.)
September: "Stories from Astroblast", attendees of the ORAS star party "Astro Blast" told stories of the event.
August:
July: No meeting (club picnic)
June: We had a round table discussion of the following topics: (1) Eratosthenes: The Circumference Experiment Revisited (2) The AL certificate programs (3) Gravity assist
May: Tom Scordato gave a computer demonstration on the characteristics of stars.
April:
March: We had a round table discussion of the following topics: (1) The Solar Eclipse (2) Lunar Prospector (3) Iridium flares (4) the possible "5th Force" that was being talked about in the media.
February: Club members brought their astronomy slides to show to the group.
January:
1997
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