Landscape Astrophotography – Diane Ramthun

Diane Ramthun is a Wisconsin-based photographer who enjoys doing night sky landscapes. Her talk will focus primarily on viewing and photographing the dark skies over Lake Superior.

Diane: Years ago, while sailing into the remote reaches of Lake Superior, I saw the brilliant stars and Milky Way in the dark night skies for the first time. I wanted to capture what I saw and so began my interest in night sky photography. Capturing the connection of light between sky and earth has been my objective. At night over Lake Superior, the stars, Milky Way and planetary bodies cast vibrant and glowing reflections on the waters...

Tales and Tails of Star Clusters – Kyle Cudworth

Star clusters have been critical to our studies of stars and of our galaxy, as well as other areas of astrophysics. Besides their scientific importance, many are also beautiful to look at through a telescope of any size. I will discuss various topics involving star clusters, with a number of examples from my research through the past 45 years

I will make some remarks on the current status of Yerkes Observatory, but the majority of my time will be spent discussing my research on star clusters.

About the Speaker:
Kyle Cudworth, former director of Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, WI, and Prof. Emeritus, The University of Chicago.

Cudworth’s interest in astronomy dates to learning a bit about constellations as a Boy Scout, and...

Astrobiology: OHLALA Project (Origins of Life, Artificial Life, & Astrobiology)

Description: OoLALA was created to bring together scientists and engineers who are working to solve some of the deepest mysteries associated with life’s origins and distribution in the universe, as well as inspire others to join the effort. In this presentation, I will talk about the launch of this new initiative and discuss examples of OoLALA research being conducted right here in Madison, including my own on the chemical origins of life on Earth.

About the Speaker: Lena Vincent obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular & Cell Biology from California State University, Long Beach and was then awarded a research fellowship by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine at City of Hope Cancer...

The first billion years on Earth and Mars: A geologist’s perspective – Clark M. Johnson

Despite the likelihood of early habitability on both Earth and Mars, the geologic evolution of these two planets, and the rock record they preserve, is quite different. Plate tectonics on Earth played a central role in evolution of our biosphere, and yet has destroyed much of the early Earth rock record, creating great challenges for finding evidence for early life on Earth. Mars did not have Earth-style plate tectonics, but the evidence is clear that Mars was habitable very early in its history. Preservation of the early Mars geologic record is excellent, raising the possibility that it might contain evidence for the earliest life in the Solar System...

The Donald Park star party is a family friendly event at a lovely county park. This is a chance to see the stars and planets through many different telescopes and binoculars – bring your blanket or lawn chair and sit back later in the evening for a night of watching meteors.

Presentation for guests on meteor showers and planets by the Madison Astronomical Society before the stars come out. Sunset is about 8:08 pm, observing planets can begin about that time with fainter objects as it gets darker. Temps usually fall a bit after sunset so dress accordingly.

Donald Park of Dane County
1945 State Road 92, Mount Horeb, Wisconsin

Chasing Shadows: Planning for and Imaging ISS Transits of the Sun and Moon – Jeffrey E. Shokler

How do you catch something travelling at 17,500 mph as it moves between you and a target that might be 92 million miles away (or maybe only 240,000 miles away)? Longtime MAS member and astrophotographer Jeffrey Shokler will show us how to plan for International Space Station transits of the Sun and Moon, and also about his recent experiences capturing images of those events. You’ll learn about on-line planning tools, strategies for the week before, day before, and day of in terms of positioning and set-up. Jeff will also share the approaches he has taken to both capturing and processing the transit data in order to create finished images of ISS transits.

About the Speaker:
Jeffrey E...

Observing Our Solar System – Martin Mika

The talk will outline the basics of our solar system: history, characteristics of the planets, how they move, and how to observe them with amateur telescopes. I will then also discuss some imaging techniques and touch on citizen science projects that can be undertaken by amateurs, with a few examples from some of the top planetary imagers around the world.

About the Speaker:
Martin Mika is a long time observer and astrophotographer and is the Observatory Director for the MAS.

The Milky Way and Its Dark Nebulae – Walter Piorkowski

This talk covers how the Milky Way is portrayed in charts and atlases, how to plan for and observe dark nebula and how these objects are cataloged. I will also show a selection of my 2×3 degree fields of the DN and discuss the “low extinction” windows in the Milky Way.

About the Speaker:
Walter Piorkowski is an amateur telescope and instrument maker. He is the former President and member of the board (14 years) of the Chicago Astronomical Society and Alder Planetarium (Chicago), Evening Courses instructor 1972 – 1980. He was Technical Support Adviser to Oberlin College’s CUREA program at Mt. Wilson observatory. Walter also was an Astro-Physics Mount Assembly Supervisor for 28 years.

(Re)Inventing the Flat Earth” – Peter Sobol

A survey of the history of ideas about the shape of the Earth in Western Civilization with a focus on the nineteenth century, which saw both the rise of the Warfare hypothesis (which encouraged secularists to misrepresent medieval ideas) and the rise of the modern Flat Earth movement, concluding with a glance at the present state of that movement.

About the Speaker:

Peter Sobol has taught the history of science at Indiana University, Oklahoma University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. in addition to standard history of science he has taught courses on the history of pseudoscience and the occult, hence his abiding if morbid interest in the vagaries of human thought.

April 2019 will bring a special meeting for the Madison Astronomical Society. Instead of our usual gathering at Space Place, we will meet instead at Sterling Hall on the UW-Madison Campus, where our very own Jim Lattis will give us a tour of some of the astronomy department’s historic facilities.

WHAT: The meeting in Sterling Hall will include a tour of the rooftop astronomy facilities, including the vintage Spitz optical/mechanical planetarium and the rooftop telescopes, including the historic Burnham telescope. Weather permitting we will observe with the Burnham refractor.

WHEN: will convene at 7:15 pm on Friday, April 12. Please plan to arrive around 7:00 since we will want to assemble before we start to move around inside Sterling Hall as a group.

WHERE:...