Extinction. “Help! All my friends are dead!”

Some details about the event: Monday 11 November 2013: 1st talk at 7 PM, same talk at 745 PM, observing starts at 730PM until 930PM. 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. Keep an eye on twitter for updates – however since the weather has already postponed the event once we’ll be going ahead with the talk even if we can’t observe! – updates will be available here – Observatory Twitter

About the talk:

Scientists have estimated that about 4 billion species have evolved over the last 3.5 billion years and about 99% of them are extinct. What this tells us is that extinction is a part of life. Every single species that has lived or is alive today will go extinct at some point. However, there have been …

Finding Global Minimum in the Potential Energy Landscape

The next talk 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 ‘The most important problem you’ve never heard of – Finding Global Minimum in the Potential Energy Landscape ‘ by Adam Cadien. As always the event is free and everyone is invited!

Some details about the event: Monday 21 October 2012: 1st talk at 730 PM, same talk at 815 PM, observing starts at 8PM until 10PM. 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. Keep an eye on twitter for updates – if weather is poor the event may be postponed a week – updates will be available here – Observatory Twitter

About the talk:

Being able to accurately determine the arrangement of atoms in materials is the best way to gain a better of understanding of how that material works and how to make it better. This knowledge is remarkably valuable and has applications in many areas of science and technology today. However, full atomic structure information is still hard …

Game Management-Can Hunting Animals be the Best Way to Save Them?

The next talk 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 ‘Game Management – Can Hunting Animals be the Best Way to Save Them?’ by Lauren Wilson. As always the event is free and everyone is invited!

Some details about the event: Monday 14 October 2012: 1st talk at 730 PM, same talk at 815 PM, observing starts at 8PM until 10PM. 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. The event has been postponed once because of weather and the talk will be held even if observing has to be cancelled because of weather – updates will be available here – Observatory Twitter

About the talk:

Hunting friendly conservation groups such as ducks unlimited and quality deer management association have been very effective in terms of conservation and have worked to conserve species in part in the hopes that eventually they’ll be hunted. Other groups have attempted to give threatened species an economic value by creating an artificial hunting market in …

The Debate Over Fracking

The third talk of the Fall 2013 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 ‘The Debate over Fracking‘ by Prof. Chris Clarke. As always the event is free and everyone is invited (details about the event: Monday 23 September 2013: 1st talk at 8PM, same talk at 8:45PM, observing starts at 8:30PM until 10PM. Arrive at the lobby of Research Hall. )! Just keep an eye out for weather – the event may be postponed or cancelled due to bad conditions – updates will be available here – Observatory Twitter

About the talk:

An “Unconventional” Challenge –

Communicating about Energy Development and “Fracking”

The last decade has seen increased interest in “unconventional” oil and natural gas drilling using hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). These issues have created considerable controversy in term of potential health, economic, environmental, and social impacts. Media images of people lighting water on fire and talk of new energy “boomtowns” are but a few of the impacts being debated. In this context, effectively communicating about this issue is challenging.

In this talk, Dr. Chris Clarke …

Observing Saturn with a Telescope.

UPDATE: The Observing session and talk scheduled for September 9th has been postponed to September 16th due to cloudiness. The new details about the event: Monday 16 September 2013: Talk at 8 PM. Same talk at 8:45PM Observing starts at 8:30PM until 10PM. Arrive at the lobby of Research Hall.

The second talk of the Fall 2013 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 ‘Observing Saturn with a Telescope‘ by Darryl Wilson. As always the event is free and everyone is invited (details about the event: Monday 16 September 2013: Talk at 8 PM. Same talk at 8:45PM Observing starts at 8:30PM until 10PM. Arrive at the lobby of Research Hall. )! Just keep an eye out for weather – the event may be postponed or cancelled due to bad conditions – updates will be available here – Observatory Twitter

A little about the upcoming talk:

The planet Saturn is bright and easy to find in the night sky. It is also large enough to show recognizable detail with almost any size telescope. This talk will …

How Will the Kanamits Serve Mankind?

The first talk of the Fall 2013 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 ‘How will the Kanamits serve mankind?‘ by Dr. Harold Geller. As always the event is free and everyone is invited (details about the event: Monday 26 August 2013: Talk at 8 PM. Same talk at 8:45PM Observing starts at 8:30PM until 10PM. Arrive at the lobby of Research Hall. )! We’ll hold the event regardless of whether we’ll have to cancel observing due to weather – and as a bonus you’ll get to brush up on your twilight zone eps! – updates will be available here – Observatory Twitter

A little about the upcoming talk:

Dr. Harold Geller will speak about the expectations associated with future visits of extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations in a talk titled How will the Kanamits serve mankind? Shall we expect extraterrestrial altruism or extraterrestrial malevolence?

And the speaker:

Dr. Harold A. Geller is a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador and the GMU Observatory Director. He is currently Associate Professor of Astronomy and Observatory Director at George Mason University (GMU). Dr. Geller received …

Fall 2013 Public Observing Schedule Up!

August 19, 2013 prabasaxena

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!) is back for Fall 2013! The dates for all the events are on the google calendar and there will be posts with information about each session and talk as its date approaches. Click on the title above for the full schedule! As always the events are free and everyone is invited!

Here’s the basic schedule with some extra talk details about the first 2 talks. Click on the title of this post to access the full schedule. Information on future talks will be added soon:

Monday 26 August 2013: Dr. Harold Geller will speak about the expectations associated with future visits of extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations in a talk titled How will the Kanamits serve mankind? Shall we expect extraterrestrial altruism or extraterrestrial malevolence? Talk at 8 PM. Same talk at 8:45PM Observing starts at 8:30PM until 10PM

UPDATE: Monday Sept 9 talk Postponed due to cloudiness to Monday 16 September 2013: Darryl Wilson will talk about Observing Saturn. 1st talk at 8PM, same talk at 8:45PM, observing starts at 8:30PM until 10PM

Monday 23 September 2013: Prof. Chris Clarke will talk …

UPDATE: Summer Public Observing Session August 14th!

UPDATE: It looks like we finally have good weather (crossing our fingers) and will have a public observing session on Wednesday, August 14th. Please come to the lobby of Research Hall at 8:30 pm at George Mason for the start of the session.

George Mason Observatory will be holding two summer observing sessions open to the public (where you’ll get to look at awesome galaxies, stars, planets and more through our 0.8 meter telescope!). The events are open to anyone and are free however there will be a 40 person cap on each event due to limited resources and to ensure that the audience can observe multiple objects in a night. We ask anybody interested in attending to RSVP to the observatory email address at GMUObservatory@gmail.com. The observing dates are as follows:

July 24 2013: Observing starts at 8:30PM until 10:00PM. Arrive at the lobby of Research Hall. Backup date 07/31/13, 08/07/13

August 14 2013: Observing starts at 8:30PM until 10:00PM. Arrive at the lobby of Research Hall. Backup date 08/21/13

If poor weather cancels observing on that day the observing session will be moved one week back – updates will be available here – Observatory Twitter

Directions to GMU and Research Hall here:

Blue Skies and Rainbows!

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, …

Flying Dinosaurs: On the Origin and Early Evolution of Birds

The next talk 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 ‘Flying Dinosaurs: On the Origin and Early Evolution of Birds‘ by Advait Jukar. As always the event is free and everyone is invited (details about the event: Tuesday 7 May 2013: 1st talk at 7PM, same talk at 7:45PM, observing starts at 7:30PM until 9PM. Arrive at the lobby of Research Hall. )! Just keep an eye out for weather – the event may be postponed or cancelled due to bad conditions – updates will be available here – Observatory Twitter

A little about the upcoming talk:

Everyone has probably seen or heard of the film Jurassic Park by Steven Spielberg. It was one of the speakers’ favourite films growing up. However cool the dinosaurs were, the filmmakers got something wrong. They forgot to put feathers on the dinosaurs! Ever since the discovery of archaeopteryx in 1861, just a few years after Darwin published the Origin of Species, palaeontologists have become convinced that birds are the descendants of feathered dinosaurs. However, for a long time, archaeopteryx was …

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