A yacht sails by as some of the attendees of the 216th meeting of the American Astronomical Society mingle, eat, and prepare for a fun-filled few days. Bill Andrews photo
As I mentioned last time, I know a few folks here in Florida, so I arrived a day early to spend some time with them. I got a lot of questions about the
216th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) — the reason I’m actually here in the Sunshine State — and I was even able to answer a few. Presumably, after the activities officially start today, I’ll be able to answer the rest. It’s still my first time at one of these meetings, which I had to remind everybody of.
Technically, the first general event of the meeting was Sunday night: the opening reception. It was at the hotel/convention center’s Riverwalk Terrace, so as we mingled and ate hors d’oeuvres, the occasional jet ski, boat, and yacht passed by on the shimmering Miami River. It being a pleasantly hot evening, we’d usually wave back and forth at the travelers.
Good as the food and the weather were, it was also nice to get a chance to meet (or at least see) some of the people I’ll be listening to, and listening with, over the next few days. Everyone seemed pretty excited for the talks to start; in particular, the one on the saturnian moon Titan early Monday morning was getting a lot of buzz. But, overall, everyone’s excited to hear the seemingly dozens of talks on the Sun.
It should be an exciting few days, and fun as it is to catch up with old friends and loved ones, I’m anxious for the science to start. So stay tuned for the imminent blogs and tweets as I cover the AAS events here in Miami.