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

November 2024 Newsletter

 sbaU "first Friday" meetingS
Please visit our free meetings in Fleischmann Auditorium or Farrand Hall at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.  Early attendees may be able to catch a short Gladwin Planetarium show--but you must enter before 7pm!

First Friday, November 1, 2024, gathering at 7pm for 730pm General Meeting and talk by Jennifer Ito, Ph.D. Westmont College, Asst. Prof of Physics.  Her topic title is: "Characterization & Deployment of the PolarBear - 2b Receiver to Measure the Cosmic Background Polarization" about millimeter wavelength telescopes in the Atacama Desert in Chile used to test the Big Bang Theory (not the TV show)!
pic of Jennifer Ito

Upcoming First Fridays: 
-Dec 6, 2024 SBAU Members Kelly, Malone, Barman

Also, please check out some of our past meeting speakers and video links below:

First Friday, October 4, 2024, speaker was Liam Brennan, UCSB Ph.D. candidate.  He provided a dynamic exploration of particle physics for the groundbreaking work of the LDMX (Light Dark Matter Experiment) and the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) collaboration at CERN.  Recorded: SBAU Youtube: LIam Brennan talk
Liam Brennan
Some of his research

First Friday, September 6, 2024,  speaker Dr. Joe Masiero, research scientist at the IPAC research organization at Caltech, and the Deputy PI of the NEOWISE mission.  His talk was "Hunting for hazardous asteroids using infrared light"
joe masiero
See talk: Youtube-Hunting for hazardous asteroids
also see his "Tale of Asteroid Families"


First Friday August 2, 2024 talk by Nikolaus Volgenau, Ph.D., Las Cumbres Observatory Operations Scientist regarding "Ethanol in the Ether"  describing how simple molecules - including alcohol - form inside dark interstellar clouds, and how astronomers detect them.  His research has been in star formation.
nikolaus Volgenau
recorded at our Youtube SB AstroUnit Channel

First Friday, July 5, 2024, was an SBAU Potluck at the Museum Broder facility (across the bridge). 
The evening was filled with good conversation, and tasty food. Event flyer: events/July Potluck 2024 Rev4.pdf

orbs at potlock and prizes


Our "Second Friday"* meeting, June 14, 2024, 7pm,  was a presentation by  our SBAU Outreach Coordinator, Chuck McPartlin. The talk was titled "Lunatic Express - an 8 billion MPH tour of moons".  Chuck has been with our club since 1988 and is a winner of the Las Cumbres Outreach Award (2012) from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. His shows are always informative and entertaining. See the recording: https://youtu.be/tPv579erqhI?si=3CNwER8GPTvpfyJr 
chuck mcpartlin

Our "First Friday" May 3, 2024 was Dr. Larry Martinez, on "Ensuring Outer Space Sustainability:  Space Debris and International Conflict". Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the California State University at Long Beach (joined 1988) (Ph.D. in Political Science, UCSB 1984). He also serves as a representative of the International Institute of Space Law at meetings of the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.  Recorded: https://youtu.be/72_cp5g4XQE?si=qVHQk5hN3UtkPu1t
dr. larry martinez space law 
https://www.larrymartinez.space/

Our "Second Friday!!!" April 12, 2024 speaker was Dr. David Kary, Citrus College, on "The Race to Find Life in the Universe".  Comparing the different ways astronomers have of looking for alien life.  Past Director of Astronomy Programs at our SBMNH and taught at UCSB.  Ph.D. in astrophysics from State University of New York at Stony Brook, where his research included how solar systems form.
Recording: https://youtu.be/9cKF48fvSfQ?si=q-y_fqPdGeTwXhSB

David Kary
Astronomy-professor-wins-award

Our March 1, 2024 "First Friday" meeting was a remote presentation by "SkyMan" Bob Berman with the title "Where is the Universe".  Bob's book "Zoom" that received a NY Times rave review.
Bob Berman w telescope
Recording of Bob's March presentation

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/

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Past Meetings 2023


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




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



Listing of some of our past speakers since 2008


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.


240513 astro hour guys pic
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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
theskylive -- Lots here + Solar system 3D
Vandenberg rocket launch schedule
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JavierRivera
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

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Past Meetings 2022


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.





Listing of some of our past speakers since 2008