440px telework screenshot
Telescope workshop Zoom meetings Tuesdays 730p-9p.
  Contact:   President at SBAU.org to join in! 
Videos: Recorded Meetings & Zooms on Youtube.com

Photos: Outreach & other photo albums on Flickr.com

March 2024 Newsletter

 *sbaU first Friday meetingS*
Please visit our free meeting in Farrand or Fleischmann Hall at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (Proceed thru iron gates by the whale bones.)  Please come early for a Short planetarium show at 7pm "sharp", (go down towards Mission Creek, turn right just past a small frog pond) with meeting and presentation at 730pm (check below or the events calendar for details and possible exceptions).

Note: 1st Friday meetings also available by Zoom
To join Zoom Meeting,
see email sent to members.

The SBAU March 1, 2024 "First Friday" meeting will be a remote presentation by "SkyMan" Bob Berman with the title "Where [in the heck] is the Universe".  We saw an excellent recorded presentation last October, but this time our tested Zoom link will bring him live to us from near Woodstock, NY.  Check out Bob's book "Zoom" that received a NY Times rave review.
Bob Berman w telescope


Upcoming First Fridays:  April 12 (2nd Friday!)

Also, please check out some of our past meetings' video recordings and associated club videos below:

Our First Friday, February 2, 2024 was a presentation by Tim Thompson, Mt. Wilson Trustee and docent since 1981, on the History of the Mt. Wilson Observatory.  Tim, Air Force vet, with a Physics, M.S. from CSU-LA, worked at JPL for 27 years in radioastronomy and Spitzer infrared.  He is also a tournament chess player! Recorded:
https://youtube/TimThompson-MtWilson

Tim Thompson

Our First Friday January 5, 2024 was a presentation via Zoom by Dr. Mario Motta, MD with the topic "Russel Porter, the founding of Stellafane 100 years ago, and the birth of amatuer astronomy and telescope making" and his subsequent recruitment to help design and build the 200 inch Hale telescope.  See the recording here: https://youtube/Mario-Motta-Stellafane-Porter
mario motta md
https://stellafane.org/

Our First Friday December 1, 2023 First Friday meeting was an election of our the club's 2024 leaders and then presentatinos from three members about their favorite topics.  David Feinberg talked about meteorites and tektites, Mike Hardwick discussed astrophotography, and Rex Meach talked on "Celestrial Navigation Oversimplified". Recorded: https://youtube/December-Member-talks
dec 2023 speakers

Our First Friday meeting November 3, 2023 was a presentation by Matt Povich, Ph.D., an Astronomy  professor at Cal Poly Pomona.  His talk title is:  "Taking the Pulse of the Milky Way with Citizen Science." He described his work mapping star birth in our Milky Way Galaxy using multiwavelength surveys across X-rays, visible light, infrared and radio. Recorded: youtube/SBAstroUnit/MattPovich
Matt Povich
Matt Povich Cal Poly Ponoma bio

Our First Friday meeting October 6, 2023 did not go as planned due to communication problems.  But we found a very interesting Youtube video of our scheduled speaker, Bob Berman, to play for our Farrand Hall & Zoom audience.  He is an astronomer, and prolific science writer for Astronomy.com, Almanac.com, and several books.  He will join us live at a later date.
  Bob Berman
 
amazon.com/stores/author/B000AP9C6S

Our First Friday meeting September 1, 2023 was John Callas, Ph.D. Brown Univ, 1987, with the topic:  "The UNIVERSE is so LARGE & so DARK - Living within the 95% of DARK MATTER & DARK ENERGY".  Works at JPL-NASA on advanced spacecraft propulsion, was Project Manager Mars Opportunity, plus astrophysics instrumentation.  Organized May 2023 NASA Fundamental Physics Workshop here in SB
.

John Callas
see: https://youtube/John-Callas-Dark-Matter

Our First Friday meeting August 4, 2023, was a presentation by Peter Love on the "James Webb Space Telescope: A Window Into the Universe’s Past".  Peter was Systems engineer for JWST Mid-Infrared Instrument Detector at the Raytheon Hyperspectral Module Program. 
Peter Love
see:  https://youtube/Peter-Love-re-James-Webb

Our First Friday meeting July 7, 2023 had a presentation by Sahil Hegde of UCLA, a member of the Furlanetto Group looking at the early universe "Cosmic Dawn", Pop III low "metal" monster stars.
Sahil Hegde UCLA
Recorded: https://youtube/Sahil-Hegde-Cosmic-Dawn

First Friday
meeting June 2, 2023, was a presentation by Dr. Robert "Ski" Antonucci, UCSB Professor of Astrophysics and Cosmology on "Supermassive Black Holes and Quasar behavior - still Mysterious to us" [click - Youtube recording].  Also, see these articles:
 -"Quasars still defy explanation" by Robert Antonucci
-"An Identity Problem" UCSB - The Current
-Unified model of an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN)

Robert Antonucci
Research of Robert Antonucci into AGN's

First Friday meeting May 5, 2023, was a presentation by Joseph Farah, an award winning graduate student at UCSB, also working with the Las Cumbres Observatory.  He is listed as the lead author of the paper describing the imaging of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way using the Event Horizon Telescope.
joseph farah EHT
See more about Mr. Farah here: https://josephfarah.co/#  and the imaging here: https://lco.global/news/Milky-Way-black-hole 
Meeting recorded:  SBAU Youtube...skip first 20 minutes

First Friday meeting April 7, 2023, presentation by UCLA Post-Doc Daniel Gilman, reaching us via Zoom from Toronto, Canada.  He will cover the latest information on Dark Energy and Dark Matter detected using Gravitational Lensing. 
Meeting recorded:  SBAU Channel Daniel Gilman
Daniel Gilman

First Friday meeting March 3, 2023, 730pm, had a presentation by Rafael Stavros Cottom, the Lead Astronomy Programs Presenter at the SBMNH, & President, SBCC Astronomy Club, reviewing research on the first generation of stars of a specific group of metal-poor stars. Meeting was not recorded.
Rafael Stavros Cottom

First Friday Meeting, February 3, 2023, presenter was Joseph "Joe" Bassi, Phd, Fellow Royal Astronomical Society, informing us about "Spaceweather".  Meeting was not recorded.
Joe Bassi

First Friday Meeting, January 6, 2023, presenter was our Outreach Coordinator, Chuck McPartlin, showing how asteroid occultations provide information for NASA missions.  See the meeting and talk here:
https://youtu.be/svPnhShmeXE

Chuck McPartlin

First Friday "Members Night" Meeting, December 2, 2022, speakers were SBAU President Jerry A. Wilson on "My New Backyard Observatory" and Vice President Ron Herron, "My Astronomy Questions Needing Answers".  The club's 2023 Slate of Officers for SBAU Members was approved. See the recording: https://youtu.be/nbSXrlILa0w
Jerry Willson, Ron Herron

First Friday November 4, 2022, speaker was Rory O. Bentley, Ph.D., on "The Extreme Realm of the Milky Way's Core!"
  See recording on our Youtube AstroUnit channel https://youtu.be/sGfC3T5_9mc .
Rory O Bentley
https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Rory-O-Bentley

First Friday October 7, 2022, speaker was Dr. Claudio Campagnari, Chair of the Department of Physics at UCSB.  He described the latest high energy physics at CERN.  View his talk here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8_ns8qr_Kk
Claudio Campagnari

http://hep.ucsb.edu/people/claudio/CV_short_2022.pdf

First Friday, September 2, 2022, speakers were our Museum Astronomy Programs Manager, Krissie Cook, and CalTech Post-Doctoral Researcher, Rocio Kiman, gave us a "Grand Tour of the James Webb [Space Telescope findings] Up to now".  View it here:  https://youtu.be/fnVPbjGZ2t0
Krissie Cook and Rocio Kiman 400x199

First Friday August 5, 2022, speaker was Claire Williams of UCLA, speaking on "Recent Supersonic Progress on the Foundation of the First Structures in the Universe" . View at Youtube SB AstroUnit channel:  https://youtu.be/0HolG_9i3GM.
Claire Williams of UCLA

https://www.astro.ucla.edu/~clairewilliams/

First Friday General Meeting, July 1, 2022, was Dr. Rob Zellem on "Exoplanet Atmospheres"
Rob Zellem speaking w microphone

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/people/301/rob-zellem/

First Friday General Meeting, June 3, 2022, was Ben Darvish on "Evolution of galaxies in diverse environments", see the replay at SB AstroUnit Channel.  
ben darvish w telescope 300px
Ben's astrophotography at: https://www.astrobin.com/users/Astrolab/ and his CV-résumé.

First Friday General Meeting, May 6, 2022, was Dr. Timothy Brandt, Asst. Professor, UCSB Physics, presenting "The Mystery of Dark Matter" now saved at the SB AstroUnit Channel. 
Timothy Brandt
See more on Tim: https://web.physics.ucsb.edu/~tbrandt/


First Friday "Zoom" Meeting, April 1st, 2022, was Mirek Brandt and his topic was "Weighing Exoplanets, Watching the Star".  A Ph.D. candidate at UCSB working with Las Cumbres Observatory.  See the replay at https://youtu.be/vC75jDooc7U
Mirek Brandt web pic
Also see https://www.mirekbrandt.com/


Our First Friday Meeting, March 4, 2022 was Briley Lewis as our speaker.  Her topic was "How to take an Exo-planet's Picture". See it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JvxPljD9TY .  She is a NSF fellow and 3rd year graduate student at UCLA, studying Astronomy and Astrophysics. 
briley lewis fr youtube vid
Also see:  http://www.briley-lewis.com.



MANY MORE YouTube "SBAstroUnit" meeting videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU0r4RxzoyT_pwNcfN5aJsA/videos

Listing of some of our past speakers since 2008
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Click for 93105 Wunderground weather forecast

Fire & Smoke map:  https://fire.airnow.gov
PurpleAir pm2.5 etc sensors:  https://www.purpleair.com
Astrospheric forcast: https://www.astrospheric.com/?Latitude=34.436450958252&Longitude=-119.88289642334

Clear Sky Charts
Santa Barbara

 
Cachuma Lake

Figueroa Lookout

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 *SBAU "live" Astro Hour*
MONDAYs 11AM

 Hosted by our VP & DJ Baron Ron Herron, Pres JerryW lists some topics and night sky info and RonH asks questions answered by his "brain trust" of JerryW, TomW, BruceM, TimC, and ChuckMcP on this weekly video program posted here:
Youtube SB AstroUnit channel Home  . 
Refresh page at 11am (set a reminder!) to catch the start and enter your questions in the Chat area.



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 Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

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SBAU Merchandise Store 
Ask about our older style club shirts as they may be still available with a steep discount.  They make great gifts, so come and buy one or more!. 
If you have any questions or would like to place an order, please contact Pat McPartlin, Merchandise Manager, at MerchMgr at our website sbau.org
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Important Astronomy Links

Astrobin
- fantastic amateur images
Astronomy Magazine
Astronomy Picture of the Day
CloudyNights.com
- Equipment discussion forum
Current Comets
--aerith.net/comet
heavens-above.com --satellites+
LiveScience.com

NASA.com -
--news, images, & details on Missions
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
Phys.org/space-news/
Sky And Telescope
Space.com News
SpaceDaily.com

SpaceWeather.com -- Sun & NEOs
https://theskylive.com/ -- Lots here + Solar system 3D
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Javier Rivera
Museum of Natural History, Astronomy Programs Manager-retired, Javier Rivera, Interviewed for the Independent
"My Life: The Magic of Astronomy"
Museum of Natural History Curator Reflects on a Career in the Stars

Planetarium Shows & Times at the
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

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The SBAU Forum

Register NOW at http://www.sbau.org/sbauforum/ . Please also email the webmaster@sbau.org that you would like to join.  The Public is more than welcome, start or join a conversation with Santa Barbara area astronomy & telescope club members.  (Read your comments out loud before sending and see if your mother would approve hearing that!)
Also see the
SBAU CLASSIFIEDS SECTION
.
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astro day
 SBAU Major Public Outreaches:

-2nd Tuesday Telescopes, Camino Real Marketplace
https://www.caminorealmarketplace.net

-2nd Saturday, Star Party, Museum of Natural History
https://www.sbnature.org/palmer-observatory

-
3rd Fridays, Star Party, Westmont College
https://www.westmont.edu/westmont-observatory

-See our Events Calendar for all of the Outreach

A group of young, animated characters against a colorful background with the words NASA Kids' Club

Your Night Sky Stargazing Guide

SBAU Telescope Workshop
Tuesdays 7:30pm to 9:00pm
 

Only by Zoom Meetings!
Contact President to join
Learn about telescopes or astrophotography!
 
At the Telescope Workshop, we cover
types of mirrors and telescopes, but also optics, cameras, and image processing software discussions.  We encourage novice astronomers to come, ask questions, and even build, while advanced members are re-invited to atten
d to show off their work, discuss telescope issues, to help out, or hang out!  
See photo albums at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbaushots/albums .

C
heck out http://sbautw.blogspot.com for a sample of past weekly Tuesday night sessions at the Broder Building at the Museum.
View image on Twitter