Tomorrow I will fly from Milwaukee to Boston, and Thursday night I’ll be speaking at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The combined group of affiliated institutions — the CfA, Harvard College Observatory (founded in 1839!), and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) — offer monthly public outreach events.
The group puts on “Observatory Nights” in which lecturers talk about a variety of astronomical subjects. I’ve been asked to spend a few minutes talking about the 40th anniversary of Astronomy magazine and 10 great astronomical discoveries of the past, followed by a few minutes of discussion on comets and Comet ISON (C/2012 S1).
My talk will take place on Thursday, September 19, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time. I look forward to seeing some Astronomy subscribers and contributors there, in the Phillips Auditorium of the CfA at 60 Garden Street, Cambridge. If you can’t be there and would like to check out the talk, you can watch it live here: http://sao-www.harvard.edu/events/mon.html.
I’ll be in Boston for a couple days and would like to thank David Aguilar (Director of Public Affairs and Science Information) and Christine Pulliam (Public Affairs Specialist) for their kind invitation and handling of this trip. I also want to thank astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the CfA for offering a behind-the-scenes tour of the observatory, which I will share with readers after my return to Milwaukee.
See you in Cambridge!