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.
Future Presentations
2024 Presentations
Oct 26 7:30 This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom
Title: How to Build a Space Mission - The Story of TRACERS
Presenter: Jasper S. Halekas, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Iowa
The upcoming Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission, designed and led by the University of Iowa, is currently in the final stages of integration and test before its planned launch next spring. I will describe the genesis and development of the TRACERS mission from the proposal phase through design, assembly, test, and integration. I will also outline the scientific goals of the mission and describe what we hope to learn from TRACERS about our local space neighborhood and the impact of the Sun and the solar wind on our terrestrial environment.
Nov 23 7:30 This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom
Title: The Resurrection of Voyager 1
Presenter: Professor William (Bill) Kurth - University of Iowa
This talk will address humankind's most distant explorers and their epic journey of discovery, now concentrating on the exploration of the interstellar medium, the 'stuff between the stars'. But, to tell this story, it is important to discuss the saga of keeping the two Voyagers going on their now 47-year journey to distances measured in nearly a light-day.
Dec 7 7:30 * Virtual Event Only
Title: TBD
Presenter: Scott McIntosh, Deputy Director of NCAR
Scott’s research in the field of solar physics has focused on three main areas: the detection and impact of magnetohydrodynamic waves; the detection and understanding of ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet radiation; and understanding the decadal evolution of the solar plasma.
Scott has authored or co-authored over two hundred journal articles since receiving his Ph.D. in 1998 and approaching 10,000 citations – his ‘h-index’ is 47. Those articles include over fifty as first author with eleven in high-profile journals.
* Note: Virtual only. Observatory closed due to winter driving conditions.
Past Presentations
Jan 13 2024 7:30 * Virtual Event Only
Title: Odd Radio Circles and Even Odder Radio Cubes
Presenter: Lawrence Rudnick - Professor Emeritus - University of Minnesota
We'll start 50 years ago when this budding astrophysicist lost his way in the sky, then jump to some present day glimpses from the Square Kilometer Array radio telescope precursors. MeerKAT in South Africa and ASKAP in Australia are testing out some of the new technologies and making some really fun discoveries. We'll look at two ongoing projects. First, the mysterious "Odd Radio Circles" that have been discovered in the last few years, and a new technique I'm developing to visualize radio structures in three dimensions.
Professor Rudnick taught at the University of Minnesota for 42 years, and conducted research using radio, X-ray, infrared and optical telescopes on the ground and in space. He worked in many venues promoting the public understanding of science, including training K-12 teachers, appearing on public television's Newton's Apple, and helping build the Bell Museum of Natural History and Planetarium in the Twin Cities. He is an Honorary Member of the Minnesota Astronomical Society.
Feb 10 7:30 * Virtual Event Only
Title: Smartphone Astrophotography and Citizen Science
Presenter: Mr. Mark Brown - NASA JPL Solar System Ambassador
Mar 30 7:30 This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom
Title: "Where Do Stars Come From"
Presenter: Professor Steven Spangler - Professor Emeritus - University of Iowa
The night sky is filled with stars, and as we learn astronomy, we find out what incredible objects they are. They dwarf planets like the Earth, and have power outputs that are hard to describe in normal terms. But, where do they come from? How do they form and where? I will discuss how astronomers have come to the current understanding of star formation, which was really incomplete until about 50 - 60 years ago. At the present time, there are aspects of star formation that we understand very well, and other aspects that are very far from being understood. After the talk, if it is clear, we will get to see the object that illustrates star formation in action, the Orion Nebula.
April 8th - Partial Solar Eclipse Celebration.
Free Solar Eclipse glasses! - This event will be in person only
Eclipse begins 12:46 pm
https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/
https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/live/
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Apr 27 8:00 This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom
Title: PERSPECTIVES ON DISTANCE
Presenter: Charles E. Allen III - Vice-President, Astronomical League
“Perspectives” examines the relative and possible distances achievable by space flight and through amateur and professional telescopic observation. Examining scales from the human altitude record to the four cosmological horizons, the program is supported by multiple props and models and discusses astrophysicists’ answers to the biggest questions about the universe: How far can we see and how big might it be?
Unrelated to the program will be the safe display of an extraordinary 9-case collection verifiably containing 100 chemical elements.
Bio: Chuck is current vice-president and past-president of the 23,000-member Astronomical League and is a prolific speaker with over 600 public presentations to universities, secondary schools, scientific societies, corporations, museums, and other public audiences. He is a League gold-level master observer and is a G. R. Wright and Master Outreach award recipient. He coordinates three League observing programs and co-chaired ALCon ‘21 Virtual. He is also current program chair for the Evansville Astronomical Society, past president of the Louisville Astronomical Society, and a past lead judge for the Intel (now Regeneron) International Science and Engineering Fair.
May 25 8:30 This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom
Title: "Spectroscopy: the Colorful Way to View the Cosmos
Presenter: Cole Armstrong, Graduate Research Assistant, University of Iowa
Spectroscopy unveils the secrets of the cosmos through the analysis of light and its complex composition of colors. By dissecting this light, we gain insights into the fundamental properties of celestial objects and the phenomena shaping our universe. Join us for a discussion on the roots of spectroscopy to its cutting-edge applications in modern astronomy that reveal some important characteristics of celestial objects beyond what telescopes alone can resolve.
June 8 8:30
Title: How the Elements are Made
Presenter: Brent Studer, Kirkwood Community College
In his groundbreaking series “Cosmos,” astronomer Carl Sagan stated, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” What, exactly, did he mean by that? What does it have to do with the elements on the periodic table and astronomy? Tonight, we’ll learn how the ingredients needed to make a pie, planets, and even people came into existence. We’ll explore how some elements were forged in the earliest moments of the universe’s existence and how stars like the Sun are responsible for creating some of the most abundant elements on Earth and in living organisms. We’ll also learn how other elements are created as massive stars age and even during the cataclysmic deaths of these stars and other stellar remnants.
June 29 8:30 This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom
Title: Galaxy Supermassive Black Hole Masses from Reverberation Mapping
Presenter: Dr. Caroline Roberts, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa
Reverberation mapping is an observational measurement technique used to obtain the masses of the central supermassive black holes of active galaxies. Supermassive black hole mass scales with other galactic properties, including kinematics of stars in the host galaxy and mass of stars in the bulge, and so accurately determining supermassive black hole masses plays a large role in understanding galactic evolution. In this talk, we’ll discuss the procedure of reverberation mapping and take a look at some results from this method.
Jul 13 3:00 – Solar Saturday This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom
Title: Stormy Weather Ahead - Solar Cycle 25 outpacing the forecast
Presenter: Carl Bracken CAA volunteer and active member since 1995 and Basepoint Building Automations Security Systems Consultant
Current solar cycle 25 is running well ahead of forecast by almost a year, and already surpassing forecasted strength as measured by monthly sunspot totals. Join us on Saturday 13 July 2024 at the Eastern Iowa Observatory and Learning Center from 3-6pm to explore our star together and learn about some of the ways our star impacts the 'Global Electric Circuit' and drives a wide range of effects on the world we live in. Weather permitting, live safe and direct viewing of our star will be available hosted by members of the Cedar Amateur Astronomers. Inside we will have our full range of exhibits open for further exploration and learning.
Jul 27 8:30 This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom
Title: Beyond the Telescope: Exploring Digital Resources for Modern Astronomers
Aug 31 8:00 This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom
Title: How shall we travel in space? By ship? By train? Or, by radio?
Presenter: Professor Paul Price - University of Iowa - School of Public Health
How do you imagine something you have never seen? This was the challenge science fiction authors and illustrators faced 100 years ago when stories about travel in outer space first became popular. Pictures and stories had to be exciting and different to catch that “sense of wonder” that made science fiction popular, but they also had to be understandable to the reader. Any type of story is hurt by too much exposition (it gets in the way of character development and plot) so a space story cannot afford to explain all of the technical details of space travel necessary to follow a plot. What science fiction stories needed was a set of links between the kinds of travel that readers did understand and travel in space. Once these were established, the authors could focus on the stories and know that the reader would fill in the details based on their experience with earthly transport. As a result, we now have a legacy of stories, terms, expectations about space travel that reflect these links. These links shape our views on science fiction but more importantly they also shape our views on what actual space travel should look like. This talk will go over the history of space travel in literature and unpack some the assumptions about space travel that the authors, readers, and we share.
Dr. Paul Price is retired from a career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and is an adjunct professor at the University of Iowa School of Public Health. He is also a “fan scholar” of science fiction, anime, and manga.
Sep 14 7:30 - InOMN This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom
Title: The Path of the Moon in the Sky
Presenter: Professor Steven Spangler - Professor Emeritus - University of Iowa
Most people are aware that the Moon goes through its phases, and can appear in different parts of the sky at different times of day, but are probably unaware of patterns it follows. The situation was very different with people thousands of years ago, who paid close attention to the periodic changes in the Moon's position in the sky. Striking examples of knowledge of the Moon's motion in the sky are the Anasazi culture of the American southwest, and the Hopewell and Woodland cultures here in Iowa. In this talk, I will discuss the regularities associated with the Moon's motion in the sky, and make the connection with the motions of the Earth and Moon in space. This topic is particularly relevant this year, which features a "Major Lunar Standstill", in which the Moon rises the farthest north for the next 18 years.
Sep 28 7:30
Title: Monturaqui crater – the impact of an iron meteorite in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
Presenter: David W. Peate, Professor of Geochemistry & Department DEO (aka Chair)
Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, The University of Iowa
Synopsis: Solar system objects continually fall to Earth as meteorites, and the larger objects have enough energy to form craters at the Earth's surface. What happens to the solar system object in these large events? Is the material just vaporized and lost, or can we find traces in the rocks at the impact crater to allow us to determine the type of impactor? In this talk, I will focus on research done on the Monturaqui impact crater in Chile, to learn about the impact process and the object that formed it.
Bio: David W Peate is a Professor of Geochemistry at the University of Iowa, and currently Chair of the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences. His research focus is understanding how the Earth's mantle melts and how magmas rise through the Earth's crust to form volcanoes, through detailed study of the chemical composition of volcanic rocks and minerals. He has had a life-long fascination with planetary geology inspired by watching the Apollo 11 moon landings as a small child in the UK, which has led to side projects looking at impact craters and meteorites.
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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.