Announcement: Astronomical Society of the Pacific Executive Director Announces Plans to Depart

“I’m very proud of the work the staff and I have accomplished during my tenure,” Manning said. “We established a firm financial, operational and programmatic foundation for the Society during an ongoing period of economic challenges in both the nonprofit and public sectors. We’ve taken the ASP in new strategic directions, grown and expanded existing programs and created new ones, grown our digital presence via social and mobile media, and developed sustainable partnerships with other organizations. We have also increased the ASP’s visibility and engagement on the national stage.

“But it’s time for me to pursue other interests, and to support and encourage new leadership to build on our accomplishments to carry the ASP into the next 125 years. I look forward to assisting in the transition to a new executive director.”

ASP Board President Gordon Myers thanked Manning for his hard work and dedication to ASP. “His work put ASP in a sound financial position and made it a leader in the astronomy education and public outreach community.”

The search for a new executive director will begin shortly.

The Priscilla and Bart Bok Awards are in recognition of scientific merit. Observational, instrumental, theoretical, and interdisciplinary projects involving physics, mathematics, computer sciences, and engineering in support of astronomy are eligible.

The first prize of $1,000 went to Arjun Raghavan for his project entitled “Photometric Evidence of Changes in Pulsation Characteristics of Hot Subdwarf B Stars.” Rapidly pulsating subdwarf B stars (sdBVR stars) vary their brightness in time periods ranging from 80 to 600 seconds—the fastest pulsating periods for any class of stars. These rare stars are especially important because the multiple pulsation frequencies they display provide astronomers with an opportunity to study the internal structures of stars. Raghavan’s study examines changes in the pulsation characteristics of 8 of the 70 known sdBVR stars. Information about these variations suggests that evolutionary changes inside of stars may be occurring at a drastically faster rate than the changes that are visible externally.

The second prize of $500 went to Michaela Brchnelova for her project entitled “X-Ray Measurements of Tycho Supernova Remnant’s Dynamics.” She presented x-ray measurements of Tycho’s supernova remnant. Observations and spectra from 2005 and 2009 retrieved from the data archive of the European Space Agency (ESA) orbiting x-ray observatory XMM Newton were compared to determine differences caused by collision of remnant material with the surrounding “interstellar medium” of free gas and dust, and by the remnant’s own expansion. These comparisons revealed regions in which the x-ray energy had increased and decreased over the four-year period.

Representing the ASP and AAS as Bok Award judges were Dr. Katy Garmany from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), Dr. John Glaspey, NOAO (retired), and Dr. Chris Groppi, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University.

The awarded funds are intended for use by the recipients to further their education and research efforts, and are augmented by support for travel to the next winter meeting of the AAS.

The Bok prize is named for Bart and Priscilla Bok. Bart Bok was an accomplished research astronomer who made important contributions to scientific understanding of the Milky Way and star formation. He received the ASP’s Bruce Medal in 1977 for lifetime achievement in astronomy. Throughout his life, and especially as an ASP Board member, Bok was a strong advocate for education and outreach in astronomy as was his wife, Priscilla, also a distinguished astronomer. They are co-authors of a celebrated book on the Milky Way.

Upon his death in 1983, the ASP established the Bart Bok Memorial Fund to support educational projects. The activities supported by the Bok Fund were expanded to include the joint ASP/AAS sponsorship of an astronomy award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, funded in part by support from the National Science Foundation.

Founded in 1889, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that works to increase the understanding and appreciation of astronomy–by engaging scientists, educators, enthusiasts, and the public–to advance science and science literacy. The Society produces scholarly and popular publications, education programs, resources and professional development opportunities, and has a national and international membership open to all interested parties.

The American Astronomical Society, established in 1899, is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America and also includes physicists, mathematicians, geologists, engineers, and others whose research interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects now comprising contemporary astronomy. The mission of the American Astronomical Society is to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe.

If you trace the meteor trails of the Perseids back to their source, you will find they seem to come from a spot near the constellation Perseus — hence their name, and the name of most meteor showers.

We have a few tips on how to make the most of your meteor shower viewing experience:

• Get out of the city! Try to get to the darkest location you can. The darker it is where you are, the more meteors you will see streaking across the sky.
• Check the weather forecast for that night! You may need to check out two or three areas for predictions on fog, clouds, and temperature. Some weather sites even offer forecasts specially tailored for sky watching. Make sure you have clear skies to go along with those dark ones.
• If you know of a gathering of folks, or an event hosted by a local astronomy club, go there — especially if it’s your first time!. Find a meteor party by searching the Night Sky Network for clubs near you, or by searching for events near you.
• You will be outside for a good while, and will want to lie flat on your back to soak up as much of the sky as possible. To stay cozy bring a blanket, a jacket and hat, warm cocoa and water, and friends and family. The more the merrier! If you are in an area with bugs, you may also want to bring some bug spray.

We also have a handout you can use.

For more information on one of our favorite meteor showers, check out NASA’s excellent writeup.

You can also use the handy “Fluximator” meteor shower activity application to try to predict when the peak activity will be for your location.

Have fun — and may you have clear skies!

More information about the ASP’s awards and past recipients can be found here.

Thomas J. Brennan Award for exceptional achievement related to the teaching of astronomy at the high school level, is awarded to Mr. Gregg L. Williams. Williams has served as planetarium director for Indiana’s Merrillville Community School for 30 years, and has made a point of including everyone he can in the production and presentation of planetarium shows. The planetarium is staffed by his students who are members of the astronomy club Williams sponsors. He invites other teachers to become familiar with the production of shows specific to their subject matter, including art and history. In addition to teaching technicalities of running an engaging and real-time planetarium show, he also engages students in the classroom. When he began teaching in 1984, he developed his own astronomy course materials, and in 2001 his teaching expanded to science courses taught in his planetarium. Williams, a member of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA) for 30 years, regularly hosts astronomy conferences, and engages the public in stargazing after planetarium shows.

Richard H. Emmons Award for excellence in college astronomy teaching is awarded to Dr. Charles Tolbert. Tolbert has been a professor at the University of Virginia for more than 40 years, teaching one of the largest and most popular science courses on campus. Tolbert brings astronomy to life for students who otherwise may not be exposed to it. During his 46-year career, he has served as Education Officer of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) for six years, chaired the committee on Physics Education for the American Institute for Physics for three years, and has been actively involved in the Board of Control for the Piedmont Regional Education Program for Special Education. Tolbert also runs tours and astronomy programs at the McCormic Observatory at the University of Virginia for school and education groups.

Klumpke-Roberts Award for outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy is awarded to Dr. Mary Kay Hemenway. Hemenway, recently retired director of educational services in the department of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin, has dedicated her career to diverse areas of astronomy education, from professional development programs for teachers to education oversight. She has led hundreds of NASA and NSF funded workshops for teachers in numerous locations across the country, including the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas. Hemenway was in also charge of operating the American Astronomical Society’s Resource Agent program, which provides astronomy materials to K-12 teachers and has reached 215 teachers in 45 states. Through her work, Hemenway has changed how astronomy is taught at the university level. She also served on the board of directors for the ASP, as the Education Officer in the American Astronomical Society (AAS), and is a past member of the Astronomy Education Review editorial board.

Las Cumbres Amateur Outreach Award for outstanding outreach by an amateur astronomer to children and the public is awarded to Mr. Chuck Bueter. Bueter, independent informal education professional in South Bend, Indiana, was instrumental in the popularization of astronomy at summer camps as well as diverse astronomy events in the area, and garnered national attention through his programs and website. He has volunteered with Kids Astro Camp at Camp Eberhart in Indiana since 2003, where his enthusiasm for astronomy has helped introduce astronomy to children of all ages. Most recently, his passion for astronomy culminated with the Transit of Venus in 2012, where he orchestrated dozens events in preparation for the event. His efforts resulted in thousands of children and adults viewing the transit with excitement, and became the cover story of the March 2012 issue of Planetarian, the journal of the International Planetarium Society. He also worked with a local planetarium director to organize a program called “Let There be Night,” during which more than 3,000 student from 14 schools learned about the problems of light pollution from hands-on research and activities.

Robert J. Trumpler Award for a recent Ph.D. thesis considered unusually important to astronomy is awarded to Dr. Gurtina Besla. Besla earned her PhD at Harvard University and authored the dissertation, “Are the Magellanic Clouds on Their First Passage about the Milky Way?” which asserts a new theory about the origin and history of these clouds. Magellanic clouds have been long believed to be orbiting the Milky Way Galaxy for billions of years. However, Besla’s research suggests that the clouds’ role in relation to the Milky Way is unclear, and that this is the first time they have approached the galaxy, sparking wider research on the idea. Besla has gone on to analyze how this idea affects surrounding celestial bodies and other theories concerning the creation of the galaxy. Her paper has already been cited more than 150 times, and her continued research provides more insights into astrophysics questions.

About the ASP

Founded in 1889 in San Francisco, the ASP fosters science literacy through astronomy by serving professionals, educators and amateurs around the world, and engaging and inspiring current and future generations. The ASP publishes both scholarly and educational materials, conducts professional development programs for formal and informal educators, and holds conferences, symposia and workshops for astronomers and educators specializing in education and public outreach. The ASP’s programs are funded by corporations, private foundations, the National Science Foundation, NASA, private donors, and its own members.

Gunn’s early theoretical work helped establish the current understanding of how galaxies form, as well as the properties of intergalactic space. He also suggested important observational tests to confirm the presence of dark matter in galaxies and developed plans for one of the first uses of digital camera technology for space observation.

His digital camera engineering skills were crucial both for the Hubble Space Telescope and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a project he originated that has produced the deepest, most comprehensive map of the heavens ever made. Astronomers also know him as a master gadgeteer. In “First Light,” Richard Preston’s 1987 book about a group of astronomers working at Palomar Observatory in California, Gunn is depicted as a scientist who can move seamlessly from deep discussions about theoretical physics to expeditious repairs of a misbehaving telescope.

He is regarded as one of the world’s premier designers of detection instruments. One noted Gunn creation is the 700-pound camera for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey that he built in the basement of the University’s Peyton Hall over six years. The camera, one of the most complex imaging instruments ever developed for astronomy, currently is connected to the telescope at Apache Point, perched atop the Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico.

The Gunn-designed camera has helped scientists using the Sloan telescope to confirm the existence of dark energy, the mysterious force believed to be causing the universe’s expansion. Scientists working on the project have made many discoveries, including detecting the most distant quasar ever, and finding the most massive structure in the universe, a huge collection of galaxies called the “Great Wall.”

In 1968, Gunn joined the Princeton faculty as an assistant professor of astrophysics, and worked on pulsars with Jeremiah Ostriker, a Princeton professor of astrophysical sciences who also would go on to win a National Medal of Science (2000). Pulsars, neutron stars that emit systematic beams of radiation, had only recently been discovered.

Gunn accepted an appointment at Caltech in 1970, studying the association of quasars – mysterious, highly luminous objects – with clusters of galaxies and proving how distant they were. At that time, he became deputy principal investigator on the Wide-Field Planetary Camera for the Hubble Space Telescope. In addition, he built several instruments for the 200-inch Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory. He returned to Princeton in 1979 and has continued to follow his interests in developing better tools to help scientists understand galaxy formation and celestial structure.

“Dr. Gunn’s versatility in making exceptional contributions to astronomical theory, observation, and instrumentation truly makes him a worthy recipient of Catherine Wolfe Bruce’s medal, which celebrates distinguished services to astronomy,” said James Manning, ASP executive director.

Gunn was also a 2009 recipient of the National Medal of Science. He will be honored as the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medalist the ASP’s 125th Annual Meeting, taking place July 20-24 in San Jose, CA.

Established by Catherine Wolfe Bruce and first awarded in 1898, the Bruce Medal has recognized many of the most accomplished and influential astronomers of the past century, a period of extraordinary change in human understanding of the universe.

About the ASP

Founded in 1889 in San Francisco, the ASP fosters science literacy through astronomy by serving professionals, educators and amateurs around the world, and engaging and inspiring current and future generations. The ASP publishes both scholarly and educational materials, conducts professional development programs for formal and informal educators, and holds conferences, symposia and workshops for astronomers and educators specializing in education and public outreach. The ASP’s programs are funded by corporations, private foundations, the National Science Foundation, NASA, private donors, and its own members.

Covering topics from the latest NASA missions – including Planck and Mars – to cosmology to lunar science to infrared astronomy to asteroids, speakers come from the front lines of the latest in astronomy and space science:

Dr. Lloyd Knox has served as a professor of physics at UC Davis since 2001, and is an active researcher in the area of cosmology. Dr. Knox is currently a member of the Planck collaboration and South Pole collaboration, the former of which is arguably the most important experiment in cosmology today. The data from the Planck research is teaching cosmologists about the origin of all structure in the Universe, in addition to answering numerous other cosmic questions. His impact on the field is evidenced by almost 4,000 citations of his 72 publications.

Dr. Pamela Marcum currently serves as the project scientist for NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) at Ames Research Center. After receiving her doctorate in astronomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Marcum joined the Department of Physics faculty at Texas Christian University (TCU) as the first tenure-track astronomer — and the first woman to be hired in that department. After nearly a decade there, she took temporary leave to become a visiting scientist at NASA Headquarters, serving for three years as program scientist for the WISE and Kepler missions. Following a one-year return to TCU, she left academia to work with the SOFIA team on achieving several major milestones, including the execution of SOFIA’s first science observations, installation of the first flight instruments, and an international deployment.

Brian Day, Director of Communication and Outreach at the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI), is responsible for connecting students and the public to lunar science and exploration. He has worked on diverse NASA lunar projects as the Education/Public Outreach Lead, in addition to working on E/PO sections for numerous NASA mission proposals. He is a member of NASA’s Speakers Bureau, giving popular talks at local high schools and community organizations. Additionally, he served as Chair of the Foothill College Observatory for 16 years, and is active in the amateur astronomy community.

Dr. Christopher McKay, from the Space Science and Astrobiology branch of NASA Ames, is currently involved in researching the evolution of the solar system and the origin of life. He is also helping to plan future Mars missions, including the possibility of human exploration. Dr. McKay has been involved in numerous field research projects concerning the surface of Mars, including polar and desert studies in the Antarctic Dry Valleys, the Atacama Desert, the Arctic, and Namib Desert.

Dr. Alex Filippenko, professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley, is currently involved in research surrounding progenitor starts and details of the explosions of supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. His research also concerns the physical properties of quasars and active galaxies, in addition to the search for black holes in various celestial bodies. His is perhaps best known as being a part of the team that discovered the accelerating expansion of the Universe, which is thought to be driven by “dark energy.” This discovery garnered a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011 for team leaders.

About the ASP Annual Meeting

The ASP is a nonprofit astronomy education organization that every year organizes one of the country’s most well-attended professional development meetings for science educators and public outreach professionals. This year marks the ASP’s 125th Annual Meeting, co-hosted by San Jose State University. Over five days, K-12 teachers, university professors, and leaders from planetariums, science centers, and research institutions gather to explore best practices and trends in science education and outreach.

Founded in 1889 in San Francisco, the ASP fosters science literacy through astronomy by serving professionals, educators and amateurs around the world, and engaging and inspiring current and future generations. The ASP publishes both scholarly and educational materials, conducts professional development programs for formal and informal educators, and holds conferences, symposia and workshops for astronomers and educators specializing in education and public outreach. The ASP’s programs are funded by corporations, private foundations, private donors, and its own members.

Dr. Lori Fenton (SETI Institute)

Listen (mp3 file, 25.1 MB)

The complex, yet flawless landing of the rover Curiosity on Mars in August 2012 led to worldwide acclaim. What has NASA’s youngest robot been up to since then, and what has it discovered? Where on Mars did it land and why was that site chosen above all others? Dr. Fenton gives an overview of the rover’s capabilities, accomplishments, and plans on Mars, and describes what it’s really like on the surface of the red planet.

As stated in its policy guide, NASA “can make especially important contributions (in) education and raising the general level of public understanding and appreciation of science and technology.” The agency has also, in our estimation, recognized the fundamental principal that science and science education work best when they go hand-in-hand. For nearly two decades, NASA’s science directorate has embedded educators working with scientists directly into its science missions and programs. This pioneering approach has produced authentic science education experiences, using metrics to document significant impacts for millions of students, teachers, and the engaged taxpaying public in support of strategic and national STEM goals.

NASA’s SMD EPO has amplified its reach by partnering with a national network of schools, colleges, museums, non-profit organizations and others, leveraging resources to achieve maximum impact for the benefit of the nation and its youth. The agency and its partners also understand that effective education does not occur solely in the classroom; NASA has effectively championed out-of-school experiences that complement formal learning in synergistic ways.

NASA SMD anticipated the Administration in recognizing the value of coordinated efforts: as early as 1997, it established the concept of coordinating forums to enhance its programmatic efforts. Four years ago, it established Science Education and Public Outreach Forums (SEPOFs) for each of its science divisions. The SEPOFs work together, using a common set of goals, metrics and robust evaluation approaches to coordinate the work of mission and program EPO in a collaborative, communication-rich environment. This approach increases STEM education impact as scientists and educators—working together—inspire, engage, educate and train with real, cutting-edge, scientific discoveries and techniques.

In the ASP’s view, these efforts already directly support the President’s national STEM goals. Most use capabilities unique to NASA that cannot be duplicated or disseminated by other agencies. Virtually all will be lost—overnight—under the current plan.

This is the time to truly take a step forward in advancing national STEM goals. We strongly urge the Administration to listen to the collective voices expressing concern over this proposal—experts who successfully deliver science education programs and training every day to the educators and learners who shape our future. We call upon the Administration to reconsider its plan, and work together with its science agencies to craft a STEM education strategy that will build upon, leverage and strengthen existing and effective programs rather than dismantle them. In this way, we can collaboratively advance strategic STEM initiatives for the national good. We will provide current and future generations with the very best foundation to ensure their STEM-literacy, and we will create an education legacy worthy of our shared goals.

Make YOUR voices heard!

U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation

Capitol Hill Basics

Contacting Your Congressional Representative

THOMAS: Legislative Information from the Library of Congress

Dr. Gibor Basri (University of California, Berkeley)

Listen (mp3 file, 34.4 MB)

The least massive star is six times heavier than the most massive known planet. In between is the realm of the mysterious “brown dwarfs.” The first of these was discovered only in 1995, the same year astronomers found the first planet beyond our solar system. Since then we have found hundreds of each, and new techniques are giving us even more power to probe the properties of these enigmatic bodies. Dr. Basri, one of the discoverers of brown dwarfs, summarizes the progress we have made in understanding the domain of cosmic objects that don’t qualify as stars.