A young observer peers through the CAA's vintage Celestron 16 telescope.
PUBLIC EVENTS
The CAA hosts at least 12 Saturday Public Observing events featuring a guest speaker that is followed—weather permitting—by celestial viewings through telescopes at the facility. During viewing hours, society members will be available to answer questions and provide everyone with an opportunity to look through the Society's telescopes and those of our members.
This site will be updated through out the year as we assemble our speakers and events.
2021 Presentations
Tom Field, Field Tested Systems
You can almost touch the stars
Even if you wanted to touch a star, they’re all impossibly distant. Despite these great distances, astronomers have learned an enormous amount about stars. How? The most common method to study the stars is called spectroscopy, which is the science of analyzing the colorful rainbow spectrum produced by a prism-like device. Until recently, spectroscopy was too expensive and too complicated for all but a handful of amateurs. Today, though, new tools make spectroscopy accessible to almost all of us. You no longer need a PhD, dark skies, long exposures, enormous aperture … or a big budget! With your current telescope and FITS camera (or a simple web cam or even a DSLR without a telescope) you can now easily study the stars yourself. Wouldn’t you like to detect the atmosphere on Neptune or the red shift of a quasar right from your own backyard?! This talk, with lots of interesting examples, will show you what it’s all about and help you understand how spectroscopy is used in research. Even if you are an armchair astronomer, understanding this field will enhance your understanding of the things you read and the night sky.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/98884047596?pwd=VERhVlVUUGhDeTRlRjRqNi9nR3RsUT09
Meeting ID: 988 8404 7596
Passcode: 603059
Tom Field
Tom Field has been a Contributing Editor at Sky & Telescope Magazine for the past 7 years. He is the author of the RSpec software (www.rspec-astro.com) which received the S&T “Hot Product” award in 2011. Tom is a popular speaker who has spoken to hundreds of clubs via the web and in-person at many conferences, including NEAF, the NEAF Imaging Conference, the Winter Star Party, the Advanced Imaging Conference, and others.
May 1, 8:00 p.m.
Presenter: To be announced
Title: To be announced
May 15, 8:30 p.m.
Presenter: To be announced
Title: To be announced
June 12, 8:30 p.m.
Presenter: To be announced
Title: To be announced
July 10, 8:30 p.m.
Presenter: To be announced
Title: To be announced
July 31, 8:30 p.m.
Presenter: To be announced
Title: To be announced
August 14, 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Presenter: To be announced
Title: Our Sun and Solar Activity Cycles
August 28, 8:00 p.m.
Presenter: To be announced
Title: To be announced
September 25, 7:30 p.m.
Presenter: To be announced
Title: To be announced
October 16, 7:30 p.m.
Presenter: To be announced
Title: Earth’s Moon: International Observe the Moon Night
October 30, 7:30 p.m.
Presenter: To be announced
Title: To be announced
November 27, 7:30 p.m.
Presenter: To be announced
Title: To be announced
2021 Past Presentations
January 16, 7:30 p.m.
Nancy Atkinson, contributing editor for Universe Today- www.universetoday.com
Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions
"The stories of 45 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make it possible to land on the Moon. Many of these people have gone unheralded for their work, but their contributions were vital to meeting the challenges of such an audacious project. These are stories from the 1960's that you won't find anywhere else."
February 13, 7:30 p.m.
Charles (Chuck) E. Allen, Vice President, Astronomical League
Cosmic Horizons
Cosmic Horizons explores the limits of human visibility imposed by planetary curvature, photon sensitivity of the human eye, and the speed of light in an expanding universe. We briefly explore the definition of planetary horizons and the role of planetary size in defining them. Next, we examine the faintest astronomical objects we can see with and without optical aid, and the smallest number of photons theoretically detectable by humans. Finally, we discuss the four horizons imposed by time and the speed of light (the Hubble distance, cosmic particle horizon, cosmic event horizon, and future visibility horizon) and consider how these horizons change in an accelerating universe and what effect they have on what we can, or ever will, see.
Chuck Allen
Chuck is currently Vice-President, and also past-President, of the Astronomical League. He founded the League’s 30 year-old National Young Astronomer Award in 1991, received the G. R. Wright Award for service in 1998, and holds the League’s Master Outreach Award with more than 500 public programs to his credit. He is a League Master Observer with 38 programs completed, three of which he coordinates.
Chuck is Program Director for the Evansville Astronomical Society and past President of the Louisville Astronomical Society (1991-94). From 1995 to 2002, he served as Judge, and once as Lead Judge, in earth and space science for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Chuck graduated from Duke University in 1970, served as a U.S. Air Force officer from 1970 to 1974, and graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1977. He was a partner with Kentucky's largest law firm, Frost, Brown Todd LLC, where he practiced for 27 years.
2020 Past Presentations
March 21, 7:30 p.m. CANCELED DUE TO CORONAVIRUS
Prof. Steve Spangler, University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Lost Siblings of the Sun
Can we find some of the stars that were formed in the same Star Formation Region as the Sun, 4.5 billion years ago? Incredibly, some sober astronomers think the answer is yes, and published a paper to this effect in the Astrophysical Journal. The star is visible to binoculars and should be up at the time of the March public night.
April 25, 8:00 p.m. CANCELED DUE TO CORONAVIRUS
Dr. Jasper Halekas, University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy
The Parker Solar Probe Mission
May 16, 8:30 p.m. CANCELED DUE TO CORONAVIRUS
Mr. Brent Studer, Cedar Amateur Astronomers
TBA
June 13, 8:00 p.m.
Dr. Raymond Anderson, University of Iowa, Earth and Environmental Sciences
The Manson Meteor Impact Structure and the Decorah Impact Structure
The observatory will not be open, Presentation will be virtual.
July 11, 8:00 p.m.
Dr. Phil Kaaret, University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy
X-Raying the Milky Way with HaloSat
The observatory will not be open, Presentation will be virtual.
July 25, 3:00 p.m. -- Solar Day
Mr. Carl Bracken, Cedar Amateur Astronomers
Cycles of Change
Maunder, Dalton, Centennial…Eddy. A look at global impacts from long duration cycles of solar activity to try and understand the historical record and how it might inform us about the next extended activity cycle. What are some of the latest tools being used in the quest for understanding how our star works and impacts life on our planet?
The observatory will not be open, Presentation will be virtual.
August 8, 8:00 p.m.
Dr. Casey DeRoo, University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Exploring Beyond Our Galaxy with X-ray Astronomy
The observatory will not be open, Presentation will be virtual.
August 22, 8:00 p.m. Canceled due to ongoing power/internet outages in Cedar Rapids.
September 12, 7:30 p.m.
Mr. Ahmed Reda (TBC), Minnesota Astronomical Society
Stellar Evolution
Stars evolve from clouds of gas and dust treading different paths depending on their mass. This presentation explores these different paths throughout the stars' lifecycles.
The observatory will not be open, Presentation will be virtual.
September 26, 7:30 p.m. InOMN: Lunar Saturday
Mr. Doug Slauson, CAA Club Member
The observatory will not be open, Presentation will be virtual.
October 10, 7:30 p.m.
Dr. Jasper Halekas
University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy
The Parker Solar Probe Mission
The observatory will not be open, Presentation will be virtual,
November 7, 7:30 p.m.
Mr. Brent Studer, Kirkwood Community College
Meteorite Morphology: Classifying and Collecting Meteorites
Interplanetary vagabonds such as meteorites can tell astronomers a great deal about their parent bodies and the early solar system. In this talk we’ll learn about the origin of meteorites, how they are classified, and collecting these relics from the formation of the solar system.
The observatory will not be open, Presentation will be virtual.
December 19, 7:30 p.m.
Professor Steve Spangler, University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Lost Siblings of the Sun
Can we find some of the stars that were formed in the same Star Formation Region as the Sun, 4.5 billion years ago? Incredibly, some sober astronomers think the answer is yes, and published a paper to this effect in the Astrophysical Journal.
The observatory will not be open, Presentation will be virtual.
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Public observing events are held in the Eastern Iowa Observatory and Learning Center at the Palisades-Dows Observatory and Preserve through a generous agreement with the Linn County Conservation Department. For directions, please visit our Map to Pal-Dows page or download a pdf version (276 kB.)
The Cedar Amateur Astronomers, Inc. is a participating member of Night Sky Network.
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