Agenda
Agenda
December 2012 – April 2013 Dec 2012 – Apr 2013
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Dec
10
Mon
Monthly Meeting @ GMU Research Hall Room 163
Tickets
Dec 10 @ 12:00 am – 2:00 am

Sunday December 9, 2012 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Guest Speaker: Astronaut Tom Jones

Dr. Thomas D. Jones is a scientist, author, pilot, and former NASA astronaut. He holds a doctorate in planetary sciences from the University of Arizona, and in more than eleven years with NASA, flew on four space shuttle missions to Earth orbit. On his last flight, Dr. Jones led three spacewalks to install the centerpiece of the International Space Station, the American Destiny laboratory. He has spent fifty-three days working and living in space.

Dr. Jones will speak on the Science of Planetology.

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Categories: Monthly Meeting
Jan
14
Mon
Monthly Meeting @ George Mason University
Tickets
Jan 14 @ 12:00 am – 2:00 am

Our next speaker is Gideon Bass and he will be speaking on Kepler Studies of Low-Mass Eclipsing

Summary of Upcoming Lecture

KIC 6131659 is a long-period (17.5 days) eclipsing binary discovered by the Kepler mission.  We analyzed six quarters of Kepler data along with supporting ground-based photometric and spectroscopic data to obtain accurate values for the mass and radius of both stars, namely M1=0.922 ± 0.007Msun, R1=0.8800 ± 0.0028Rsun, and M2=0.685 ± 0.005Msun, R2=0.6395 ± 0.0061Rsun.  There is a well-known issue with low mass (M <<0.8Msun) stars (in cases where the mass and radius measurement uncertainties are smaller than two or three percent) where the measured radii are almost always 5 to 15 percent larger than expected from evolutionary models, i.e. the measured radii are all above the model isochrones in a mass-radius plane.  In contrast, the two stars in KIC 6131659 were found to sit on the same theoretical isochrone in the mass-radius plane.  Until recently, all of the well-studied eclipsing binaries with low-mass stars had periods less than about three days.  The stars in such systems may have been inflated by high levels of stellar activity induced by tidal effects in these close binaries.  KIC 6131659 shows essentially no evidence of enhanced stellar activity, and our measurements support the hypothesis that the unusual mass-radius relationship observed in most low-mass stars is influenced by strong magnetic activity created by the rapid rotation of the stars in tidally-locked, short-period systems.  Finally, using short cadence data, we show that KIC 6131657 has one of the smallest measured non-zero eccentricities of a binary with two main sequence stars, where e cos ω = (4.57 ± 0.02) × 10-5.

 

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Categories: Monthly Meeting
Feb
11
Mon
Monthly Meeting @ George Mason University
Tickets
Feb 11 @ 12:00 am – 2:00 am
Monthly Meeting @ George Mason University

Our next speaker is Eric Douglass and he will be speaking on Types of Observable Lunar Craters NOTE: This meeting will be held in the “Showcase Room” which is the meeting room at the base of the Research Hall Observatory instead of the normal location.

 

 

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Categories: Monthly Meeting
Mar
10
Sun
Monthly Meeting @ George Mason University
Tickets
Mar 10 @ 11:00 pm – Mar 11 @ 1:00 am

Our next speaker is Andrea Jones and she will be speaking on Mars Exploration Missions and Future

 

 

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Categories: Monthly Meeting
Apr
14
Sun
Monthly Meeting @ George Mason University
Tickets
Apr 14 @ 11:00 pm – Apr 15 @ 1:00 am

Guest Speaker: Dr. Gianluca Masi

Next 14 April, starting at 23:15 UT, the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (NOVAC) will offer you a unique chance to explore cosmic landscapes from the comfort of your chair.

Thanks to a joint collaboration between NOVAC and the Virtual Telescope Project (VT)in Italy (www.virtualtelescope.eu), a powerful telescope in Italy will be capturing in real time images of the most beautiful cosmic gems and will share the view with all those connected from all around the planet.

All this with the live commentary of the astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, PhD, founder and scientific director of the Virtual Telescope Project, who will be available on the event chat for questions and comments.

We will surf the northern Spring skies, spying beautiful, distant galaxies like Messier 51, Messier 100, NGC 4565 and so on, also spying dying stars, exploding supernovae millions and millions of light years away. On our way back home, we will visit planet Saturn and its elegant, amazing rings. Of course, participants can suggest their own preferred destinations via chat, adding interactivity to the trip.

NOVAC and VT will open the online event to all, for free: to join, you just need to access, at the event date and time, the page:www.astrowebtv.org

In case of cloudy weather at the observatory, backup images will be used.

This event is part of the Global Astronomy Month 2013.

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Categories: Monthly Meeting
December 2012 – April 2013 Dec 2012 – Apr 2013