2009 was declared an International Year of Astronomy by the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO, to promote understanding of the importance of astronomy and other basic science in daily life. IYA2009 commemorates the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first telescopic observations in 1609.

The mural display was developed by NASA to celebrate IYA2009. The images are created by combining images from three of NASA’s “Great Observatories”, each of which views the sky in a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The source images include a near-infrared view from the Hubble Space Telescope, infrared from the Spitzer Space Telescope, and X-ray images from the Chandra Deep Sky Observatory. The combined image shows “the unique science each observatory conducts, [and] also how far astronomy has come since Galileo.”

The mural will be unveiled in a ceremony at noon on Tuesday, November 17, in the Fourth Street lobby of the main library. On Saturday, November 21, the library will host a follow-up day of activities, including lectures, films, educational activities, and night sky viewing. The November 21 activities last from Noon until 7 pm. The mural will remain on display through the end of 2010.

So, let us take a tour …

When you enter the exhibit, you are greeted with a pillared entry. Do not go racing past them, take the time to notice they have text on them, from the “where no one has gone before” dialogue to a list of episodes.

Pass the pillars and you will be in a large area that includes uniforms and artifacts. There is a display featuring all of the Enterprises beginning with the Enterprise aircraft carrier, followed by the space shuttle, and then the starships. The centerpiece in this room is an immense model of the 1701-A Enterprise.

We exit this area to the right and enter the bridge of the original series. This for me was a disappointment. It is a scaled down bridge with no interactive features; unless sitting in the Captain’s chair or at the helm is being interactive. The consoles have plastic non-push lit up buttons. A few of these could be setup to activate display screens, sound effects, and communications chatter. Having the forward view screen animated would liven up the bridge. Note: no photography allowed throughout the exhibit. A photo of you in the Captain’s chair is available for a fee.

We exit the bridge through the turbolift and proceed down a walkway passing displays of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock’s uniforms.

Proceeding along the walkway, we enter a corridor of the 1701-D Enterprise (Next Gen), this portion of the exhibit being my favorite. First up along the corridor is Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s ready room. This closed-off area includes the Captain’s uniform, various props, and a bottle of Chateau Picard wine. Continue down the corridor to a full-scale Transporter. You can stand on the Transporter and wish photography were allowed. Look up at the monitor to see yourself; will you beam down? Next to the Transporter room is a full-scale model of the Guardian of Forever, the time portal from “The City on the Edge of Forever.” Another lost opportunity for a photo of you going through the portal. These two rooms include Captain chairs, a shooting model of the Borg ship, along with more artifacts and uniforms. Before leaving the corridor, take a close look at the displays on the walls of the corridor.

Leaving the corridor, we enter “The History of The Future.” The History of The Future is a timeline, which goes chronologically from right to left. Not only is it a bit strange that the timeline is right to left, you enter the room to the left of the timeline. This room includes shooting models of the Enterprise and other ships. There are more uniforms on display here including those from the recent Star Trek film.

That’s it. End of the exhibit; however, turn the corner and there are two motion simulators,

The two rides have an extra fee each.

There is an eight-seat ride that I found to be rather tame. There were six aboard, I was in the last row and had an obstructed view of the display screen. You are fighting the Borg as Worf (Michael Dorn) narrates. The ride rocks back and forth enough for you to slide back and forth on the bench seat. You may want to skip this one.

The other simulator is a two-seater. This one is fun. You get strapped in as you will be rolling and looping. The display is right in front of you and again you are fighting the Borg. There is a warning that the ride may be too intense for some; you will be upside-down a few times. If you are going to ride both simulators, do this ride second.

I recommend Star Trek: The Exhibition even though the admission is a bit pricy.

Check the Tech Museum’s Star Trek: The Exhibition website for ticket pricing, hours, costume guidelines, and more.

The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. In 1969 on July 20, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon, while Michael Collins orbited above.

The event will have a variety of hands-on activities and presentations by NASA and space industry experts. Some of the Moonfest exhibits and activities include:

Ask a Lunar Scientist
Ask NASA experts about their jobs. This will be a chance to informally interact with lunar/ space experts about their work, career paths, or other topics.

Small Spacecraft Division, NASA Ames Research Center
Visitors will get an overview of current and future Ames’ satellite missions, build their own little satellite, and have the chance to talk to people directly involved in those missions.

Moon Rocks
The real deal.

Model Rockets
Scale models of the Apollo Saturn V, scale models of other spacecraft from the Apollo era will be launched between noon and 2:00 pm at the airfield (shuttle buses will be available).

MoonPies
The Planetary Society allegedly will be handing out mini MoonPies.

Kids’ Activities for preschool through middle school will include puzzles, coloring contests, and quiz games.

There will be speakers from various backgrounds throughout the day (click name for time and topic): Lawrence Krauss, Anthony Colaprete, Susan Hackwood, Diane Wooden, and Donald Pettit.

Astronaut Donald Pettit is veteran of two spaceflights and lived aboard the Space Station for 5-1/2 months. Recently, he was aboard the STS-126 Endeavour Shuttle/Station assembly mission.

The event organized by the NASA Lunar Science Institute, a new organization that supplements and extends existing NASA lunar science programs and LCROSS. Follow them on Twitter.

Moonfest 2009
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, 94035

Sunday, July 19, 2009
12:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Admission: Free
Free parking, limited public transportation is available.

Dr. Patricia Burchat

This Wednesday, May 20 Physicist Patricia Burchat of Stanford University will give a non-technical, illustrated talk on The Dark Side of the Universe: Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

Okay, what the heck is this dark matter and energy stuff?  Good question.  Actually, it is a bit of a mystery to scientists.

Let us tackle Dark Matter. We live in an average galaxy called the Milky Way. The Milky Way contains about 100 billion stars.  Yeah, 100 billion stars is an average galaxy. Individual galaxies are concentrated into groups, called clusters of galaxies.  Clusters of galaxies are more than just galaxies; the space between galaxies in clusters is filled with hot gasses. These gasses are so hot that they are detected in X-rays and not visible light. Scientists checked out the distribution and temperature of the hot gasses to determine how much total matter there is in that part of space. They discovered that there is five times more material in clusters of galaxies from the galaxies themselves and the hot gasses. Most of the stuff in clusters of galaxies is invisible, scientists thus presume that most of the matter in the entire Universe is invisible. This invisible stuff is called Dark Matter.

Dark Energy is a different story that is not easily explained here. Let us just say that dark energy refers to the fact that some kind of stuff must fill the vast reaches of mostly empty space in the Universe in order to be able to make space accelerate in its expansion.

Dr. Patricia Burchat is Chair of the Physics Department at Stanford University.  She studies matter and antimatter created at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, also the bending of light by the gravity of massive clusters of galaxies far away.

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Arrive early to locate parking.
Parking lots 1, 7 and 8 provide stair and no-stair access to the Smithwick Theater.

Smithwick Theater, Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills

Wednesday, May 20
7:00 pm

Admission: Free
Parking: $2.00

650-949-7888

Megan McArthur

Megan McArthur, a Silicon Valley native who graduated from St. Francis High School in Mountain View in 1989, will be making her first spaceflight She is one of seven astronauts picked to fly in an 11-day mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis (STS-125) Hubble Servicing Mission scheduled to launch Monday May 11 at 11:01 am.

McArthur’s parents currently live in San Jose, and she considers California her home state, although she was born in Hawaii. She has a doctorate in oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego.

For the Hubble mission she will be responsible for the robotic arm operations during the capture and release of Hubble, as well as during the spacewalks and Atlantis’ heat shield inspections. She also will serve as the flight engineer, assisting on the flight deck during ascent and landing.

Atlantis’ 11-day mission will include five spacewalks to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope with state-of-the-art science instruments, expanding the telescope’s capabilities and extending its lifetime through at least 2014.

Refurbishing and restoring will include installing new Battery Module Units, new Rate Sensor Units, New Outer Blanket Layer material, an upgraded Fine Guidance Sensor, Advanced Camera for Surveys, Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, along with upgrading the Wide Field Camera and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. Now you know.

Identifying the Spacewalkers:
John Grunsfeld – Solid red stripes
Drew Feustel – No markings (solid white suit)
Mike Massimino – Broken horizontal red stripes
Michael Good – Diagonal red stripes (barber pole)

Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4 – STS-125
Launch: May 11 – 11:01 am PDT
Landing: May 22 – 8:41 am PDT

Follow the mission on NASA TV, Twitter, and other Social Networking Sites

Dr. Margaret Race

Spend Earth Day April 22 learning about The Danger of Mingling Microbes!

Knowing that microbes can survive the harsh environment of space, ecologist Margaret Race stresses the importance of planetary protection. Her work focuses on the scientific, technical, legal and societal issues of ensuring that missions to Mars and other solar systems do not either unintentionally take terrestrial microbes along or return any microbes to Earth. Unintentionally taking microbes along on a mission could complicate test results in knowing if the microbes are actually from Mars or brought along from Earth.

Dr. Race will give a non-technical, illustrated behind-the-scenes view of “environmental management” planning for solar system missions, and explain the role of the Outer Space Treaty and other related national and international policies. She will also discuss the varied societal issues likely to arise from discoveries about life beyond the Earth.

Dr. Margaret Race is an ecologist at the SETI Institute who works with NASA and the international space community to develop, refine, and apply planetary protection policies to missions to the planets. She has also worked at both the Environmental Protection Agency and KQED Television.

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Arrive early to locate parking.
Parking lots 1, 7 and 8 provide stair and no-stair access to the Smithwick Theater.

Smithwick Theater, Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills

Wednesday, April 22
7:00 pm

Admission: Free
Parking: $2.00

Kepler Mission - NASA

Are there any Earth type planets out there? Welp, NASA’s Kepler mission will launch this Friday and be on its way to find out.

This Friday, March 6, NASA Ames Exploration Center will present demonstrations on the technology used on the Kepler spacecraft followed by the live televised launch of the Kepler spacecraft. Admission is free.

The Kepler Mission will check out a part of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets.

The Kepler will look for terrestrial planets, those in the habitable zone of their stars where liquid water and possibly life might exist.

Bill Borucki, Kepler Principal Investigator, NASA Ames: “The habitable zone is where we think water will be. If you can find liquid water on the surface, we think we may very well find life there. So that zone is not too close to the star, because it’s too hot and the water boils. Not too far away where the water’s condensed and ice-covered, a planet covered with glaciers. It’s the goldilocks zone, not too hot, not too cold, just right for life.”

NASA’s Ames Research Center is the home organization of the principal science investigator and is responsible for the ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis.

The Kepler Mission is named after Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) a German mathematician and astronomer who discovered that the Earth and planets travel about the sun in elliptical orbits.

The NASA Exploration Center is located outside the main gate of NASA Ames, location map here.

Friday, March 6, 2009
Doors open at 5:30 pm, and the program includes:

5:45-6:30 Kepler Orrery demonstrations (learn how the spacecraft will detect planets)
6:40 Welcome, Lewis Braxton, Deputy Center Director
6:45 Ames’ history of planetary exploration – Jack Boyd, Ames historian
7:00 Kepler Mission Overview – Dr. Tom Roellig, NASA Ames Astrophysicist and Kepler co-investigator
7:48 Kepler Launch – televised live from Kennedy Space Center, Florida

The Exploration Center will remain open for approximately one hour following the launch. Launch windows are 7:49 – 7:52 pm and 8:13 – 8:16 pm.

Way too much information here.

Hubble Ultra Deep Field - NASA

The Hubble Space Telescope has made it possible to look back to a time when the universe looked very different than it does today.

Steven Beckwith, currently the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies for the University of California’s ten campuses and former Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (which runs the Hubble), will give a somewhat non-technical, illustrated talk on The Dawn of Creation: The First Two Billion Years.

Billions of years ago galaxies looked much different than they do today. The Milky Way and other galaxies took shape slowly, building up from many pieces in the debris of the initial Big Bang explosion.

Topics like galaxy shapes, the expanding universe, gravity – is it the same now as it was billions of years ago, dark matter, and dark energy should get you tingly all over. No? Then Baryon Acoustic Oscillations may do the trick.

Note: The Ultra Deep Field contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies.

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Arrive early to locate parking.
Parking lots 1, 7 and 8 provide stair and no-stair access to the Smithwick theatre.

Smithwick Theater, Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills

Wednesday, March 4
7:00 pm

Admission: Free
Parking: $2.00

Okay, what the heck does that mean? It means Titan, Mimas, Dione and Enceladus will pass directly in front of Saturn and you will see their silhouettes crossing Saturn’s cloud tops all at the same time.

This all begins Tuesday morning at 2:54 am PST with Titan. Titan, being as big as a barn, may be seen looking through a small telescope.

The smaller moons Mimas, Dione and Enceladus one by one will follow Titan. At 6:24 am PST, all four moons will be in front of Saturn.

To photograph the smaller moons, you will need a mid-sized telescope equipped with a good CCD camera.

Of course, this is all weather dependent and your willingness to be awake at those hours.

Also, keep an eye out for the green Comet Lulin. It should be observable in the dark skies with binoculars; best on Tuesday, February 24 just below Saturn.

We will have the best views with moonset occurring sometime after mid-eclipse; however, there will be negligible dimming.

If you are awake, take a look; otherwise…