2023 Presentations 

 

 

April 8th 8:00 PM – This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom

 

Title: The Great American Eclipses of 2023 and 2024

Presenter: Brent Studer, Kirkwood Community College

Exactly one year from tonight’s presentation, on April 8, 2024, North America will experience one of nature’s most awe-inspiring events: a total solar eclipse. On October 14 of this year the United States and a small portion of Mexico and the Caribbean will experience an annular eclipse of the Sun. Tonight we will learn about eclipses—how they occur, are related to each other, and how to enjoy these extraordinary spectacles.

 

 

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April 22nd 6:00 PM – Sundog Saturday - This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom

 Title: Comets – Vagabonds of the Solar System

Presenter: Mr. Mark Brown - NASA JPL Solar System Ambasador

Comets are exotic icy travelers from the far reaches of our Solar System. NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, Mark Brown, will discuss what comets are made of and why they behave the way they do. Come and see the makings of a comet brought to life in this presentation. This is an exciting and engaging program where participants can see, touch, and hold a “living” model of a homemade comet nucleus. 

 

 

May 13th 8:30 PM – This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom

 Title: TBD

Presenter: Kevin Hall, Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Iowa

June 10th 8:30 PM – This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom

 Title: TBD

Presenter: TBD

July 8th 8:30 PM – This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom

 Title: TBD

Presenter:  Professor Cornelia Lang

 

July 22nd 3-6 PM – Solar Saturday - This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom

 Title: Solar Max Saturday - Cycle 25 Ahead of the Curve

Presenter: Carl Bracken security systems design consultant for Basepoint Building Automations. CAA

member since 1995 and serving treasurer since 2005.

 

Cycles of solar activity have been observed and documented for over 400 years. The record
shows a clear pattern of activity from the depths of solar minimum with very few observable features to
the peak of solar maximum with many large dynamic features rotating across the solar disk. When this
pattern is mapped out with the number of sunspots counted in the vertical axis and time in years is
mapped out across the horizontal axis a curve is described. The curve or cycle duration is on average
around 11 years start to finish.
In 2019 a NASA / NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) sponsored a panel of
experts across a wide range is scientific disciplines with the purpose to leverage the latest research in
solar physics to develop a forecast for solar cycle 25. Key questions under consideration, how strong will
the new cycle be, and when will it hit solar maximum? The official report from the panel forecast a solar
maximum in July of 2025 (+/- 8 months) with the average intensity like cycle 24.
As of early 2023 cycle 25 appears to be ahead of the forecast curve in intensity, and timing. In this
presentation we will look at some of the latest high-resolution data from a range of terrestrial and
orbital platforms keeping close watch on our star.

 

 

 

August 12th 8:00 PM – This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom

 Title: TBD

Presenter: TBD

September 9th 7:30 PM – This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom

 Title: TBD

Presenter: TBD

October 7th 7:30 PM – This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom

 Title: TBD

Presenter: TBD

October 21st 7:30 PM – International Observe the Moon Night - This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom

 Title: TBD

Presenter: TBD

November 4th 7:30 PM – This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom

 

 Title: The Golden Age of Medieval Astronomy

Presenter: Mr. Ahmed Reda, Minnesota Astronomical Society

"Have you ever wondered why most of the visible star names are Arabic ones? How Arabic astronomical concepts like the Azimuth or the Astrolabe came to be key ones in medieval astronomy? While most people are familiar with the Ancient Greek or Renaissance astronomy, most people don’t recognize the vast contributions of the Islamic civilization to astronomy for a millennia. This presentation will touch on some of the aspects of medieval Islamic astronomy, how it preserved the ancient knowledge, and leading a golden age of astronomy." Ahmed is very active in the MAS. Aside from serving on the current Board, he is in charge of booking guest speakers for the MAS monthly meetings, and also frequently helps out at the Eagle Lake Observatory.

 

December 2nd 7:30 PM – Virtual Event Only

 Title: TBD

Presenter: TBD

 

 

 

 Past Presentations

 

January 14th 7:30 PM - Virtual Event Only

 Title: Winter Stars and a Deeper Exploration of the H-R Diagram

Presenter: Brent Studer, Kirkwood Community College

As Professor Spangler explained at last month’s public event, the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (commonly called the H-R diagram) was developed a little over 100 years ago and is a way of plotting stars on a graph according to their inherent brightness and temperature. The diagram is one of astronomy’s most important tools and has been studied by generations of astronomy students. The winter sky features a number of stars that are excellent examples to help us explore different aspects of the H-R diagram and tonight we’ll learn how to find those stars and how their properties are depicted on the diagram. We’ll also see how the diagram can be used to piece together the evolutionary cycles of stars, the ages of star clusters and their distances from Earth, and even the size of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Don’t worry if you did not attend December’s presentation, it is not required for tonight’s discussion. Any necessary details about the main sequence will be included tonight.

 

 

 

February 11th 7:30 PM - Virtual Event Only

 

 Title: ACEAP 2022: My Amazing and Unexpected Journey to Visit the Research Telescopes in Chile

Presenter: Mr. David Falkner

Synopsis

Dave was one of 10 people selected nationally to participate in ACEAP (Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program). His talk is about his 11-day experience in December visiting and staying at three major US-owned observatories in Chile: Cerro Pachón (home of the Gemini South telescope), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope. While at these facilities, Dave and the other ACEAP Ambassadors received extensive training about the instruments, the science, data products, and communicating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts. The program also introduced the ambassadors to the people and culture of Chile.  Dave is excited to talk about this amazing experience.

Dave Falkner Bio

Dave Falkner has been a life-long lover of astronomy. After retiring from the US Navy, he settled in Minnesota and became a member of the Minnesota Astronomical Society, where he is currently a Board member. In 2011 Dave traveled to Tucson, AZ to view the Transit of Venus at the Mount Lemmon Observatory and visited Kitt Peak National Observatory. In 2017 he traveled to Casper, WY to view the total eclipse of the Sun. He was chairman of the 2018 Astronomical League National Convention. Along with his extensive outreach activities Dave has taught beginning Astronomy classes at a local community college and has published three books; two editions of “Mythology of the Night Sky” and a third book “The Stories of Astronomers and Their Stars.” He is a NASA Solar System Ambassador and an ACEAP Ambassador.

 

 

March 11th 7:30 PM – This event will be held in person as well as on Zoom

 Title: Venus: the Earth's Twin (?)

Presenter: Professor Steven Spangler - Professor Emeritus - University of Iowa

There are eight major planets that orbit the Sun, but none of them are very similar to the Earth.  In many ways, Venus is the closest match.  Its orbit is closest to the Earth, and it is nearly the same as regards size and mass.  It also possesses a thick atmosphere.  However, at this point the similarities end.  The temperature on the surface of Venus is 860 Fahrenheit, a temperature that is too hot for robot spacecraft, let along life.  I will describe the overall characteristics of Venus as well as the probable reasons why it is so different.  I will also talk about recent, intriguing suggestions that Venus might have been much more similar to the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago.  We should learn much more after the arrival of three new spacecraft missions planned for the next decade.  Finally, if the skies are clear, we will have the chance to see Venus in the evening sky before the talk. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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