Lecture and Observing of Meteor Shower are ON for tonight @ 8PM

[Cameron Hummels]

Hello everyone,

We've got a real treat for you all tonight.  We'll start the night off with a lecture by Dr. Jessie Christiansen entitled: "You Can't Spell Exoplanets without Ex(ecutions)" covering the history of mankind's search for planets beyond our solar system with highlights of what we've found to date.  After that, you're free to stick around in the auditorium for a short presentation on the Perseid Meteor shower given by Dr. Erika Hamden, or ask questions of our panel of experts at our Panel Q&A, or go outside to view the skies.  We'll have telescopes set up to observe the Moon, Saturn, Mars, the Ring Nebula, and some other interesting objects.  The weather forecast for tonight is clear, so we should have great views!

Coincidentally, last night and tonight are the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower, one of the biggest meteor showers of the year.  In a dark sky site, it is expected that you'll be able to see a meteor (also known as a shooting star) every 20 seconds or so.  At a site like Caltech, with all of its light pollution, I expect we'll be able to see a meteor every few minutes.  Since meteors streak across the sky, telescopes aren't much help, so just keep your heads up, your eyes open, and your phones off (so as to not mess up your dark-adapted eyesight).

8:00-8:30PM - Lecture: "You Can't Spell Exoplanets without Ex(ecutions)"
8:40-9:00PM - Presentation: "Perseid Meteor Shower"

9:00-10:00PM - General Astronomy Q&A for our Expert Panel

8:30-10:00PM - Telescope observing: Moon, Saturn, Mars, etc. and Perseid Meteor Shower

We've now assembled our lecture series for the rest of the year, and you can
view the schedule here: http://outreach.astro.caltech.edu/lectures . In addition, we're kicking off a series of events called "Astronomy on Tap" with informal talks at a local bar. Our next event is in two weeks. See http://outreach.astro.caltech.edu/aot for more information.

See you tonight!

Cameron

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Cameron Hummels

NSF Postdoctoral Fellow

Department of Astronomy

California Institute of Technology

http://chummels.org