The next talk (and last talk this semester!) as part of George Mason Observatory’s ‘Evenings Under the Stars’ series (where you’ll also get to look at awesome galaxies, stars, planets and more through our 0.8 meter telescope!) will be ‘Blue Skies and Rainbows‘ by Dr. Joe Weingartner.  As always the event is free and everyone is invited (details about the event: Tuesday 14 May 2013: 1st talk at 7:30PM, same talk at 8:15PM, observing starts at 8PM until 9:30PM. Arrive at the lobby of Research Hall. )!  The talk will go on even if the weather isn’t good enough for observing so definitely come out! – updates will be available here – Observatory Twitter

A little about the upcoming talk:

Blue Skies and Rainbows aren’t just the domain of ELO and anthropomorphized green frogs – they’re a part of the type of normal weather everyone experiences!  Come learn about why exactly the sky is blue and why rainbows form during and after storms!  Not only is the physics behind it not that complicated but it’s fascinating!

And the speaker:

Dr. Joe Weingartner is an associate professor in the School of Physics, Astronomy and Computational Science at George Mason University. From 1999 through 2003, he was a postdoc at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, at the University of Toronto. He received his Ph.D. in physics in 1999 from Princeton University , under the supervision of Bruce T. Draine. His research focuses on physical processes associated with cosmic dust.  He also teaches General Relativity and Planetary Science at George Mason so feel free to pepper him with questions on those topics!

Directions to GMU and Research Hall here: http://eagle.gmu.edu/map/fairfax.php  Zoom in to find Research Hall next to engineering building and York River Rd