Announcement - The St. Louis Astronomical Society ("SLAS") is distributing FREE solar eclipse glasses (while supplies last) to attendees of SLAS events from February to April 2024. There is a limit of 5 glasses per family and 2 glasses per child. To learn more about these events, please visit the SLAS event calendar. Click the following link to view the event calendar: https://slasonline.org/events/our-events. Contact the St. Louis Astronomical Society for more details: https://slasonline.org/contact-us
SLAS Regular Meeting
McDonnell Hall, Washington University - St. Louis
7:30pm Friday, April 19, 2024
“4 Meter Telescope in Chile”
by
Gautham Narayan, PhD ; Univ of Illinois
Gautham Narayan received his PhD in Physics from Harvard University and is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research interests are at the intersection of multi-messenger and time-domain astrophysics, cosmology, statistics and data science. He works on wide-field surveys developing machine learning methods for real-time detection and classification of variable and transient sources, Bayesian models for cosmological inference with type Ia supernovae, understanding the host galaxies of transients, and establishing an all-sky network of faint spectrophotometric standards for LSST, WFIRST and future projects.
Dr. Naravan is one of the organizers of Astronomy on Tap, Champaign-Urbana, and a former organizer of Astronomy on Tap, Tucson, does podcasts, public talks, panels at sci-fi conventions (Robots! Sci-fi space battles! Gustav Holst’s Planets suite and more!), volunteers with local STEM clubs, and works get people as excited about science as he is.
Dr. Naravan is Deputy Analysis Coordinator for LSST's Dark Energy Science Collaboration, and former convener of the Time Domain Working Group, co-PI of the Young Supernova Experiment. He am also a member of the SCiMMA Group, the LSST Transients and Variable Stars Science Collaboration, and has been a member of the Pan-STARRS, ESSENCE, Foundation, MzLS and RAISIN survey, among others.
The meeting will begin at 7:30 PM Friday, April 19 in McDonnell Hall, Room 162, on the Danforth campus of Washington University, Saint Louis, MO 63105. McDonnell Hall is accessible from Forsyth Boulevard via Tolman Way. Free yellow zone and garage parking spaces are available. The event will also be available via Zoom online conference.
To request Zoom link, please click here
The event, cosponsored by NASA's Missouri Space Grant Consortium, is open to the public free of charge.
Meeting Agenda
Main Speaker
SLAS Board Member Nominations for May Elections
Announcement Special Recognition Award Nominations are due by Sep 1st.
Register now: MSRAL 2024 June 7-9, Hosted by Omaha Astronomical Society
Please renew your Expiring Memberships. LINK
SLAS has 2024 group permits for Whiteside and Danville.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse
When is the eclipse for Missouri? – The Solar Eclipse will occur early afternoon on Monday April 8, 2024. The Moon will start covering the Sun around 12:38pm CDT, this is called the partial phase of the eclipse. Totality begins when the moon has completely covered the Sun, this begins around 1:54pm CDT. The Moon will completely cover the Sun for up to 4 minutes and 10 seconds, depending on your location. After totality ends, the Moon will gradually uncover the Sun, and this partial eclipse will end around 3:14pm CDT. Precise times for cities and towns in Missouri can be found here: https://eclipse2024.org/eclipse_cities/total/mo
Where do I need to be to see the Totally Eclipsed Sun? – The immediate St. Louis area is NOT in the Total Eclipse Path. You must travel approximately 100 miles south or east to be inside the Total Eclipse Path. You must be inside the Total Eclipse Path to see the Moon completely cover (eclipse) the Sun. The center of this path runs from Texas to Maine, passing through: Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Vermont and Maine. The Total Eclipse Path is around 120 miles wide in southeast Missouri. Outside this path you will only see a partial eclipse. Inside this path the Moon will completely block the Sun, allowing you to see the Sun’s inner and outer atmosphere and corona. Accurate maps can be found using these links:
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2024-april-8
http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2024_GoogleMapFull.html
https://eclipsewise.com/2024/2024.html
Are there events and activities going on during the eclipse? – Many cities and towns in southeast Missouri will be hosting events and eclipse viewing. Some host events are spanning Friday to Monday. Check each location for details. The following website has links to Missouri eclipse events: https://moeclipse.org/
Where can I get eclipse glasses? – The St. Louis Astronomical Society ("SLAS") is distributing FREE solar eclipse glasses (while supplies last) to attendees of SLAS events from February to April 2024. There is a limit of 5 glasses per family and 2 glasses per child. To learn more about these events, please visit the SLAS event calendar. Click the following link to view the event calendar: https://slasonline.org/events/our-events. Contact the St. Louis Astronomical Society for more details: https://slasonline.org/contact-us
Eclipse Educational Videos:
2024 U.S. Total Eclipse Explained (2 minutes)
Solar Eclipse 101 | National Geographic (5 minutes)
Lunar and Solar Eclipse Explained: A Beginner’s Guide to Eclipses (7 minutes)
Flyover North America for the Total Solar Eclipse of April 8, 2024 (3 minutes)
Upcoming Meetings:
May 2024: Fran Bagenal, PhD. Exploration of Jupiter System: Past, Present and Future”; University of Colorado at Boulder
June 2024: Steven R Gullberg, PhD. “Archeoastronomy”; University of Oklahoma
July 2024: Ashley Davies, PhD. “Juno Close Flybys of Io"; JPL
August 2024: Bradley Tsalyuk, Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, California Science Center
September 2024: Joseph Marcus, MD, "“Who Discovered the Expanding Universe? Spoiler: Not Hubble!”
October 2024: Pamela Gay, PhD., "Secret Squirrel Stuff", Planetary Science Institute
November 2024: Robert Zubrin, PhD. “The Case for Mars”; The Mars Society
January 2025: Bhupal Dev, PhD. “Finding New Physics in Debris from Colliding Neutron “Stars; Washington University
SLAS in the News
HECMedia: Dark Sky Missouri - Stacy Park Olivette, MO
Ladue News: Seeing stars: Upcoming events and opportunities for St. Louis stargazing,
Jefferson County Leader: Aim for the Stars, By Kevin Carbery, July 27, 2023
https://www.kmov.com/video/2023/06/20/great-day-4-kids/
Aug 24, 2023 myMOinfo.com: St. Louis Astronomical Society Offering Free Upcoming Activities at Jefferson College
Aug 30, 2023 KTVI: Special Super Moon
Sep 11, 2023 KETC TV Missouri Eclipse Task Force (starts around 13:30 minutes)
Oct 6, 2023 St Louis Post-Dispatch
Get your glasses ready: Another total solar eclipse is coming near St. Louis in 6 months
Oct. 10, 2023 St. Louis County Library
Our new SLAS coffee mugs have arrived. They will be available to purchase at
our regular meetings at Washington U. Price: $10 each, 2 for $15
2024 Astronomy Events by Mark Jones
Social Hour - 30 min after meeting conclusion or 10:30 Which ever is earlier.
Randy Harrison's Lookin' Up Optics page: http://lookinup.info/
Here are the websites that Dr. Gokhale mentioned in his talk in June
Dark Sky Missouri
www.darkskymissouri.org
Video: 'Saving the Dark' A film on Light Pollution by Sriram Murali
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fHxNn-FEnc
Globe at Night program for light pollution
Telescopes for Sale!
Shirts and Mugs for sale!
Shirts and Mugs for Sale
All shirts are $10!!!
Moon Shirt
Globular Cluster Shirt
Pleiades Shirt
There is also a Dobsonian shirt
New Poster from Guy Ottwell you might be interested in
It's called the Zodiac Wavy Chart
https://www.universalworkshop.com/zodiac-wavy-charts/?mc_cid=cfa6f33be8&mc_eid=9d6fcdbdfa