AstroAssembly 2024

  AstroAssembly 2024     

Saturday, October 5th  

at 
Seagrave Memorial Observatory
47 Peeptoad Road, North Scituate, RI  
and
Streaming via Zoom
(Zoom link will be emailed to registrants on October 4)

Presentations by all speakers will be shared on Zoom
Advance registration is required for Zoom participation
Advance registration is encouraged for in-person attendance

 
AstroAssembly is the annual convention and fundraising event for Skyscrapers, Inc., owners and operators of Seagrave Memorial Observatory, located in North Scituate, RI. The first “Amateur Astronomical Convention of the Skyscrapers” was held on August 2 & 3, 1952. Through the years, we have welcomed many notable speakers, including well-known astronomers, astrophysicists, scientists, and, even astronauts. This annual event brings together amateurs from all over the New England area to reconnect with old friends, learn something new and just have an enjoyable day.

The festivities will begin with  AstroAssembly Eve  on Friday night  for those in the area; registration for AstroAssembly is not necessary to attend.

There will  not  be a Saturday evening banquet and speaker as in years past. We will instead, break at 5 PM for a snack, and socilaizing, as well as distribution of awards and prizes. The program will conclude with our evening speaker at 6:30 PM.
 

All day Saturday at Seagrave Observatory
Swap Table (please bring your own table), Solar Viewing,  Astro-Imaging Contest , Homemade Telescopes (bring yours!). 

9:00 AM Registration Open
Morning coffee and pastries provided.
Registration includes evening pizza and snacks.
Members: $25
Non-members: $30

10:30 AM   Alan Hall, Skyscrapers, Inc.
“Restoring the 16” Group 128 Cassegrain for
the University of Connecticut"

Abstract:  For more than 20 years the UCONN Observatory was left abandoned. Not long ago UCONN hired a new astronomy professor, Matt Guthrie and he was very interested in getting the old facility up and running again. Fortunately, Al Hall had been talking with the Physics Dept. head Dr. Barret Wells about donating a telescope to the school. During that conversation, Barry mentioned Matt’s interest in the old telescope. Al sent Matt an email and the next day they were out at the observatory making an assessment. The rest is history, and a nice story. This talk will focus on the subsequent restoration effort that followed and the return of the old East Road Observatory back to life.

Bio:  Currently Al is 67 years old, and lives in CT. He has been all over the country pursuing interests in astronomy, engineering, and particularly old telescopes. During his 40-year professional career, Al worked for numerous companies including: Hughes Space and Communications, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Orion Telescopes, JDS Uniphase just to name a few. Al’s lifelong interest in astronomy and telescope making has produced (12) first place awards from Stellafane, where he now serves annually as a judge for the Mechanical Competition. Back in 2010-11, Al led a team of dedicated Skyscapers in a project to restore Frank Seagrave’s magnificent Alvan Clark Refractor. This team effort was recognized by a feature article in Sky &Telescope magazine in August of 2012. Al has always considered Skyscrapers as his second family, and every one of you, fellow brothers, sisters, and life-long friends.

 
12:00 PM  Deli Lunch 
Choice of Grinder (Italian Deluxe, Turkey or Roast Beef), Spinach Pie or Salad (Garden, Garden w/ Grilled Chicken).
More information at registration link.
$15 per person.
Pre-order and payment with registration required.
 

Astro-Imaging Contest: Noon to 4:00 PM
See our website for more information.

1:15 PM Jeff Norwood, Camera Concepts and Telescope Solutions
"Recent Developments in Optical and Astronomical Equipment"

Abstract: Jeffrey Norwood, will review  the many new and exciting developments in recent years that have served to greatly enhance our enjoyment of the heavens. The lecture promises to be not only informative but also highly entertaining!

Bio: Mr. Norwood brings with him a lifetime of real world experience as the owner/entrepreneur of Camera Concepts and Telescope Solutions, a top retailer of Photographic and Astronomical Products based on Long Island New York, since 1985. In addition to being a veteran amateur astronomer for the past 30 years, he is considered a leading expert and a top telescope repair technician throughout the astronomical community. In addition, his experience as a guest lecturer has encompassed a wide variety of subjects including not only astronomy and photography but also musicology. Professor Norwood currently holds a Master’s degree in Music History and Theory and teaches regularly at both the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and as an adjunct professor at St. John’s University in New York. As such, he has made significant contributions to the vital fields of musicology and higher education. He is a tenacious and enthusiastic individual who is an active member of many non-profit organizations which are dedicated to the advancement of education in a wide variety of fields.
 

2:30 PM Dr. Edward Guimont, Bristol Community College
"When the Stars are Right, HP Lovecraft and Astronomy"

Abstract:  Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) was a lifelong resident of Providence and a pioneering author who was a major influence on the modern genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. From a young age he was fascinated with astronomy, to the extent that ‘science’ to him generally meant ‘astronomy,’ and even attended a meeting of the Skyscrapers in 1936, near the end of his life. This talk will explore Lovecraft’s views on, and literary influence from astronomy, including his childhood visits to Ladd Observatory, his amateur astronomy journal, his personal telescope, his teenaged encounter with Percival Lowell and thoughts on life on Mars and Venus, his ideas on early rocketry, his observation of Halley’s Comet, and his debunking of an early UFO sighting.

Bio:  Dr. Edward Guimont is chair of the Department of History and Social Science at Bristol Community College in Fall River, Massachusetts. He is a historian of colonialism and science, as well as a scholar on Providence weird fiction author H. P. Lovecraft. With Horace Smith, he is coauthor of the monograph  When the Stars Are Right: H. P. Lovecraft and Astronomy  (Hippocampus Press, 2023). He is currently finishing writing his next book,  The Power of the Flat Earth Idea , for Palgrave Macmillan.

3:45 PM    Doug Gobeille, Professor of Astrophysics, URI
"Extraterrestrials, Black Holes, and Death by Space:
Why Astrophysics Matters"
 
Bio:  Prof. Doug Gobeille is a teaching professor and has been at URI for almost a decade. His primary research focuses on the study of supermassive black holes, specifically their production of active galactic nuclei and their evolution through cosmological time. This work focuses on studying the morphology of radio loud quasars using the Very Large Array (JVLA) in Socorro, NM. Additionally, observations are made with the SWIFT, Chandra, XMM Newton, and Fermi space telescopes to investigate the energy production mechanisms for x-rays and gamma-rays in high redshift quasar jets.   This research builds on his undergraduate work with Dr. Leslie Brown at Connecticut College, and graduate studies with Dr. John Wardle at Brandeis University.

At URI Prof Gobeille focuses on life, humanity, and their place in the universe. This is accomplished through incorporating modern observations and publications into introductory classroom investigations of life in the universe. Additionally, a separate team-taught course investigates science in science fiction media with a focus on film and television. Prof. Gobeille works with other physics faculty in building the larger astronomy and astrophysics facet of URI Physics Department, including undergraduate research, upper level courses, and astrophotography.

5:00 PM Socializing w/ Lite Dinner
Pizza, snacks, soda, water and coffee included with basic registration.

6:00 PM  Raffle and Astro-Imaging Awards

6:30 PM Dr. Peter Schultz, Emeritus Brown University
"Bad Day Over Chile: Impact of a Cometary Body?"

Abstract:  Less than 11,500 years ago, an object streaked northward at a low angle across the sky in northern Chile until finally exploding a few kilometers above the surface.  But this was more than an explosion: the vaporized body continued downward at high speeds and engulfed a wide area over 125 km long and 30 km wide across the Atacama Desert near the oasis town of Pica. The colliding vapor fused surface materials into large molten masses as tornado-speed winds spread them across the surface. Before cooling, some of twisted glasses formed casts of surface sediments and even plants where they landed.  This event would make Chelyabinsk in 2013 seem like a sneeze and Tunguska in 1908, a mere cough.  Two Chilean geologists first discovered the glasses and suspected that they resulted from an airburst while others argued that the glass must have formed by grass fires.  After visiting the sites, examining these glasses firsthand, and determining the temperatures of formation (instantly melting zircons), however, geologist Scott Harris and I concluded that the Chilean geologists’ first suspicion was right: this was a record of an unimaginable event.  In fact, traces of the object trapped inside matched samples returned from Comet Wild-2 (Stardust Mission), thereby implicating a cometary body.  Recreating what exactly happened in Chile requires detailed field work, computational modeling and looking for evidence of similar events on the other planets.  For example, radar-bright/dark splotches on Venus represent scars from near-surface airbursts under its much denser atmosphere.  And new studies indicate that certain large craters on Mars must have been formed by comets (rather than asteroids), a discovery that allowed estimating how many comets actually hit the Earth.  The event over Chile was probably witnessed (if not experienced) by indigenous hunter gatherers, who had arrived only a thousand years before. 

Bio:  Pete’s research focuses on impact cratering processes as revealed by laboratory impact experiments, the planetary surface record, and terrestrial ground truth.  His laboratory research has covered a wide range of topics: atmospheric effects on ejecta emplacement, impactor survival, secondary impact processes, antipodal shock effects, high-speed spectroscopy of impact vapor/plasma, impact angle effects (shock propagation, vaporization, target damage, and flow-field evolution), projectile fate after impacts, and crater-scaling relations.  Of particular recent interest has addressed the origin of fluidized ejecta and blast winds around craters on Mars.  Such basic research led to participation in numerous NASA planetary missions including  Magellan ,  Deep Impact ,  Stardust-NExT ,  EPOXI , and  LCROSS .  He cut his teeth, so to speak, on basic lunar research: floor-fractured craters, beginning/end of volcanism, lunar swirl generation, polar volatile evolution, assessment of the size of impactors, evidence for ongoing lunar tectonic activity, and what caused the difference between the lunar nearside and far side. The last study proposed that a giant impact on the far side actually caused the concentration of maria on the nearside, i.e., the Man in the Moon.  On Earth, his research has included the discovery of 8 impacts in Argentina, documentation of a witnessed crater-forming impact in Peru in 2007, studying the effects of a giant cometary air blast across the Atacama Desert, Chile only about 11,500 years ago.  He has published

~ 8:00 PM  Observing at Seagrave Memorial Observatory
The observatory’s telescopes will be available for observing (weather permitting), or set up your own telescope on the grounds.

More details are available on our website when you register.

Skyscrapers, Inc. (Amateur Astronomical Society of Rhode Island) is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization. Your contribution is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.