Dear CBAers,I apologize for being neglectful of CBA biz over the summer. Fortunately, Enrique has taken up much of the slack... and as usual, you guys do a good job mentoring each other. Among other things, I've been busy organizing a 100th birthday party for the expanding Universe. This is WAY far from our mission as guardians of variable stars... but as the registration list gets more varied and interesting with each passing week, I think the subject might well interest some of you too. About half the people won't be presenting, and about 1/3 are some variant on "amateur astronomer" (artist, writer, politician, observer, AZ resident, etc.). Here's what I just sent my colleagues at Columbia, along with the conference flyer and the present list of abstracts for talks.
If you're interested, you can register (details at the Lowell Observatory website). You don't need permission; if you read these messages, then you traffic heavily in the arcana of stars... and that puts you way over the threshold for seriousness! (A few conferees might not be, but they couldn't possibly be CBAers.) It costs $190, but includes breakfast and lunch on both conference days (Fri and Sat), plus the Thursday night reception at Lowell. Hotel's decently cheap too ($109/night).
I see from Donn Starkey's data that V380 Oph has jumped up to ~15.6. That's the last straw - it's off the list! But two months have elapsed since we quit on V1974 Cyg - let's vault that one back into coverage, so we can test for the signal's stability over the full summer observing season.
joe Some of you know about the 100th birthday celebration for the expandingUniverse that will happen at Lowell Observatory next month. But most of you probably don't... so here's your notice. I attach the conference poster and a list of abstracts to date. It's a conference of astronomers, historians, writers, artists, Slipher's family... and even a politician (just in case you thought you could briefly escape that blight).
A small (50-60) and eclectic conference in an observatory/museum/park
setting. What exactly happened 100 years ago, and in the 20 years
following ("The Day The Universe Changed")? Where have we come since
Lemaitre's expanding balloon?
Still some more writers/historians (Marcia Bartusiak, Dava Sobel) are
likely. Astronomers too, for that matter. Three Columbians so far (me,
Helena, Emir - an undergraduate). You'll find more information on the
Lowell Observatory website. Registration open till August 30 - lemme
know if you have further questions.
joe
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