Monthly Archives September 2020

Virtual Moon Over Monona Terrace

8.8 day old moon

FREE Virtual Event

Friday, October 23, 2020
7:30 – 9:30PM


Moon Over Monona Terrace is going virtual! Take a live guided tour of our Moon and other celestial objects in our solar system with members of the Madison Astronomical Society (MAS). Program Highlights:

  • Live Telescope Feed (weather permitting) – Explore the surface of the Moon and other celestial objects through telescopes provided by MAS members.
  • Sky Talk (planetarium simulation) – Explore the night sky and the wonders of astronomy, led by Geoff Holt, Planetarium Director, Madison Memorial H.S.
  • YouTube Channel (informational and educational videos) – Visit the Monona Terrace YouTube channel and select from several videos, presented by members of MAS, to enhance your event experience.

Advanced r...

Read More

MAS October Monthly Meeting

Insterstellar laser-sailing: problems and solutions

October MAS Speaker: Dr. Victor Brar

The October MAS meeting will be a virtual meeting hosted with Zoom.

Speaker: Victor Brar, Van Vleck Assistant Professor of Physics, UW-Madison.

In this talk Dr. Brar will summarize recent efforts that have been put into motion which aim to send spacecraft to Alpha Centauri at relativistic speeds, with a goal of receiving data back within our lifetimes. Those proposed missions hinge on developing laser sail technology, in which a high power (~100GW) laser propels a reflective spacecraft. He will discuss the stringent design parameters that the spacecraft must satisfy, and describe how those parameters can be achieved using recently developed ‘metasurface’ technology.

Dr...

Read More

MAS September Monthly Meeting

Copernicus: A Life on the Frontiers

MAS September Meeting with Dr. Michael Shank

The September MAS meeting will be a virtual meeting hosted with Zoom.

UW Madison emeritus professor of the history of science Dr. Michael Shank will present on “Copernicus: A Life on the Frontiers.”

Description: An unexpected invitation to write a general-audience biography of Copernicus has forced this historian of medieval science to wrestle anew with the founding figure of the Scientific Revolution. I expected the assignment to be quick and easy. Instead, it has driven me back to the sources and completely changed my picture of the man. Copernicus was far more buffeted by Baltic politics and indebted to his late-medieval background than I had ever expected...

Read More