Astronomy

     Co-Chairman: Larry Lange  
254-6281       rllange@pacbell.net

Co-Chairman Allen Grossman  
(925) 838-0954    allengross7@sbcglobel.net

Update for July 2023.

If you would like to get daily emails about science, please respond to me at dbushn@swbell.net. I get them from Sigma Xi SmartBrief, where they have been “down-edited” to language we can all understand. David Bushnell, Chairman and Editor.
 
 If you would like to get the semi-daily emails about astronomy, please respond to me at dbushn@swbell.net. I get them from Sigma Xi SmartBrief, where they have been “down-edited” to language we can all understand. David Bushnell, Chairman and Editor

 

Report for August Hotline
Due to the current health situation we are unable to have our Astronomy activity meeting in person.  However, we can enjoy the wonders of the night sky.  The planets Jupiter and Saturn will be in the Southeastern sky during the evening and in the Southern sky at midnight.  And three wonderful constellations – Cygnus (the Swan), Lyra (looks like a harp) and Aquilla (the Eagle) have stars which form a large right triangle called the Summer Triangle and are located high in the Eastern sky and easily seen with the naked eye.  The stars are: Deneb (bluish white) in the Swan, Vega (bluish white) in Lyra and Altair (yellowish white) in the Eagle.  Viewing the constellations are easier with the use of a sky chart.  We recommend using the ones in the Astronomy magazine which is published monthly.

 

Astronomy Activity Description

The mission of the activity is to present current information in the field of Astronomy by presentations by
a) the Activity’s co-chairman: Allen Grossman and Larry Lange,   
b) outside speakers, and
c) various DVD’s on a variety of subjects.

We meet 10 times a year (no meetings in June and December) at the Hilton hotel immediately after lunch. The topic is included in the monthly Branch’s Hotline newsletter. 

We enclosed articles on certain Astronomical subjects. All members and their guests are invited.

updated 7/19/2020 by DerekS

 
 
 
 
 
 A Brief Description of Dark Matter
 
 

 
A good question!….answered
 

 

Time Dilation (8 min.) – background for 03/09/2015 Meeting
 

 
How Stars Shine(2 min)
 

 
What is Gravity? Newton vs. Einstein (7 min)
 
 

 
 
 
A Brief (12 min) Description of Kepler’s Laws:

 

About the Particle Properties of Light:The Wave/Particle Double Split Experiment Explained:

 

 
On Photons and Relativity:
 

 
The Photon and Light as a Particle:
 
 

 
 

To review the announcement 0n evidence of cosmic inflation and gravitational waves click on Big Discovery. For background information also click on the links at the end of the article. ..also a video lecture on the Celestial Sphere

Activity Costs:

For regular meetings – little or no cost.  For field trips – each participant pays the related admission and docent charges as well as food and other related costs and also provides their own transportation.