On Thursday, I’ll head to New York City to participate in two great astronomical events, both sponsored by the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York, the largest astronomy club in the country.
I will speak at the American Museum of Natural History on Friday evening, October 16th, at 6:15 p.m. EDT, in the museum’s Kaufmann Theater. The talk will be “The New Cosmos: Answering Astronomy’s Big Questions” and will present lots of recent science on a variety of topics, from water on Mars to the fate of life on Earth to the meaning of dark matter and dark energy, to the ultimate end of the universe.
The talk draws on many subjects from my forthcoming book of the same title, to be published by Cambridge University Press in November.
The second talk will be a short and informal lecture at the 20th anniversary Central Park Urban Starfest, also hosted by the AAA, on Saturday, October 17th, beginning at 7 p.m. EDT. The stargaze takes place in Sheep Meadow, and participants enter the Park at West 67th Street and Central Park West. I’ll be delighted to join my AAA friends there, as well as old buddies such as Al Nagler, Mike Peoples, and David Gaynes. Last time I was there, a couple years ago, we had several thousand people looking through telescopes during the evening.
I want to thank my friends in the AAA, President Marcelo Cabrera, Vice President Susan Andreoli, and Program Chair David Kraft, for inviting me.
What a wonderful time it will be, and YES, you can see the Andromeda Galaxy (and lots more) from the middle of Manhattan!
For more on the AMNH lecture, see http://www.aaa.org/lectures/.
For more on the Central Park Starfest, see http://www.aaa.org/observing/urban-starfest-in-central-park/.
Follow Dave Eicher on Twitter: @deicherstar