NOTE: This is preliminary schedule, and planning is still underway for. Scheduled Activities may change without notice. As soon as changes are made, every effort will be made to update this listing. Please check back often for your planning purposes.
Friday Schedule:
Time
|
Activity
|
12:00 PM |
Facility open to campers for setup, bathrooms open
Viewing in yard, both solar and astronomical |
7:00 PM |
Doors open to public, facility tours, and observing
Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, juice, donuts available in lobby |
7:30 PM |
Welcome to AstroFest 2019 – Irene Siedlarczyk, Kopernik Society President,
“George’s Best Images, a Video Slide Show” –most images taken at Kopernik – George Normandin, KAS President |
8:30 PM |
Seeking the Heart of M87 – A black hole update, presented by Dr. Aileen O’Donoghue, Henry Priest Professor of Physics, St. Lawrence University. |
9:15 PM |
Night Sky Viewing – in the Domes and in the Yard, Night Sky Laser Tours, “Learner’s Land” – come out to the yard and learn how to operate a telescope. The KAS will provide hands-on lessons or bring your own scope and get help setting it up and operating it with help from the KAS and Kopernik staff, hot beverages and snacks available, bathrooms and domes open all night, Lobby closes at Midnight
If cloudy skies – Patrick Manley will host a demonstration and discussion with meteorites. Demonstration includes hands on interaction with select meteorites. |
Midnight |
Lobby Closes (Restrooms remain open all night) |
Saturday Schedule:
Time
|
Activity
|
7:30 to 10 AM |
Coffee, tea, hot Chocolate, juice, donuts available in Lobby |
9 AM- all day |
Vendors in Physics Lab, Dark Sky Exhibit, Facility Tours |
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
Solar Viewing in the Yard (H-Alpha and white light), in the Domes (Herschel Wedge on 6” Astro Physics Refractor, and with the Heliostat, Refractor, dedicated to the memory of the “Legendary Barlow Bob”, Godfrey in 2014, in the Physics Lab) |
10:00 AM – 11:15 AM |
Show and Tell Meteorites – Patrick Manley |
10:00 AM – 11:15 AM |
Activities for Kids – Tish Bresee, Kopernik Staff & NASA Solar System Ambassador |
11:00 – 12:15 PM |
Ripples in Spacetime: The Physics of Gravity Waves presented by Dr. Aileen A. O’Donoghue, Henry Priest Professor of Physics, St. Lawrence University. |
12:30 – 1:30 PM |
Lunch and Astronomy Club Roundtable Discussions (include the NYPENN Girl Scouts) |
1:50 – 2:50 |
TBD |
2:00 – 5:00 PM |
Swap Meet – buy and sell your treasurers (in vendor’s area), used equipment for sale to raise funds for new scope |
2:15 – 3:15 PM |
Bad Seeing or Bad Optics? – Something that hits home with most of us – how to determine the difference, and what can be done to improve certain seeing conditions. Presented by Bob Piekiel, followed by Q & A and book signing. |
3:30– 4:45 PM |
Special Sauce and Dangerous Medicine: Getting the Best from Your Deep Sky Images – presented by Ronald Brecher, Ron will pull back the curtain on a few PixInsight processing techniques that he uses near the end of his workflow. He will demonstrate how to increase contrast and detail, reveal detail in bright regions, and accentuate dark features in images. |
|
|
5:00 –5:50 PM |
The Planets of Science Fiction and the Exoplanets of Modern Science – We may not fully see it at this point, but we have entered a golden age of astronomy. Exoplanet discoveries and identification have ushered in a whole new era of science and astronomical discovery. Science fiction has long imagined both human favorable planets and ones that are extremely hostile to our being. Exoplanet research is finding both of these as well in the real physical universe. Come check out the intersection of these imaginative existences, and discover what we have found, what we will pursue and how we will identify habitable planets beyond our own solar system. Presented by Patrick Manley, KAS. |
5:50 –6:45 PM |
Dinner Break and Musical Entertainment by Robert Siegers |
6:45 |
Raffle Prizes |
7:30 PM |
Apollo 11 50th Anniversary – Presented by Keith Werkman, PhD, KAS |
8:30 PM |
What Are the Odds? The Drake Equation and More – Presented by Ronald Brecher, The Drake equation provides a way to think about the odds of other intelligent civilizations in our galaxy. But this type of equation can also provide insights into other existential questions, like “How productive am I likely to be, given the many challenges I face as an amateur astronomer?” Ron will discuss the Drake equation and current estimates for its parameters and predictions. Then, a similar equation will be used for a lighthearted look at the many factors – both within and beyond our control — that influence the productivity of amateur astronomers. |
9:45 PM |
Night Sky Viewing – in the Domes and in the Yard, Imaging Demo of FLI Camera on 20” OGS RC, Night Sky Laser Tours, hot beverages and snacks available, bathrooms and domes open all night.
Sci-Fi movie in Space Science, Lobby closes MidnightIf cloudy skies – Patrick Manley will host a demonstration and discussion related to the ZWO Astrophotography Ecosystem. |
Midnight |
Lobby Closes (Restrooms remain open all night) |
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