This list is not just a catalogue of the great speakers and talks we’ve enjoyed over the past few years, on a wide variety of astronomical topics (both amateur and professional), but a thank you to all those speakers, especially the ones from the Covid era (March 2020 – May 2022) who have interacted with us only via Zoom talks. Zoom was a life saver, but didn’t have the same personal touch. But, as per 2022, we now have a Zoom and/or Live option, which gives us added flexibility. Some things turn out well in the end!
2016 Speakers
Jan 2016 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS. “The Big Bang – In the Beginning…”
Feb 2016, Mr. Hugh Blair-Smith, CCAS. “Left Brains for the Right Stuff.”
Mar 2016 – Dr. Michael Hunter, CCAS. “LIGO: Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory: A Brief Introduction and Overview of a Millennial Event.”
April 2016 – Mssrs. Bernie Young, Joel Burnett, Hank Ricci and Charlie Burke. “State of the Werner Schmidt Observatory.”
May 2016 – Mr. Bernie Young. “The upcoming transit of Mercury.”
June 2016 – Dr. Anastasia Fialkov, HSCfA. “21-cm line of neutral hydrogen.”,
July 2016 – Dr. Larry Marschall, Gettysburg College. ” New information about Pluto gleaned from data collected by NASA’s New Horizons mission.”
August 2016 – Dr. Tony Stark, HSCfA. “Cosmology with the South Pole Telescope.”
Sept 2016 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS. “LIGO Revisited”
Oct 2016 – Dr. Charles Lada, HSCfA. “The Search for Stellar Origins from Antiquity to the 21st Century.”
Nov 2016 – Dr. Chat Hull, HSCfA. “Star Formation Through Radio Eyes.”
Dec 2016 – Mr. Bernie Young, CCAS. “Apparent retrograde motion.”
2017 Speakers
Jan 2017 – Mr. Tansu Daylan, HSCfA. “Inner Milky Way Gamma Ray Excess”
Feb 2017 – Dr Jim Lynch, CCAS. ” Is the Universe Stringy, Loopy, Neither or Both?”
Mar 2017 – Dr. Frank Primini, HSCfA. “Probing the nucleus of M31 with the Chandra X-ray Observatory.”
Apr 2017 – Dr. Mike Hunter, CCAS. Observatory and Foundation Report.
May 2017 – Dr. Stella Kafka, AAVSO. “Discussing the Elusive SNeIa progenitors.”
Jun 2017 – Mr. Gary Derman, CCAS. “What is electricity? What is magnetism? A discussion.”
July 2017 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS. “The Drake Equation, with emphasis on the 7th term.”
Aug 2017 – Dr. Tony Stark, HSCfA.”Star Formation in the Milky Way and Beyond.”
Sept 2017 – Ms. Katie Sisson, CCAS. “Stellar Evolution and Structure”
Oct 2017 – Mr. George Silvis, CCAS. “Rømer and the Speed of Light”
Nov 2017 – Dr. Larry Marschall, Gettysburg College. “Tiny bit of shakin’ going on: Gravitational waves and the universe.”
Dec 2017 – Dr. Mike Hunter, CCAS. “A History of Science.”
2018 Speakers
Jan 2018 – Dr. Mike Hunter and Joel Burnett, CCAS. “A three part program for CCAS.”
Feb 2018 – Dr. Ken Brink, CCAS. “How’s the Air? – Planetary Atmospheres.”
Mar 2018 – Dr. Frank Primini, HSCfA. “Adventures in Gravitational Lensing.”
Apr 2018 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS. “Spectroscopy – Basic Theory and What It Tells Us About the Universe. ”
May 2018 – Mr. Jim Mitchell, DYHS, and the DYHS honors students. “Astronomy honors projects.”
June 2018 – Dr. Ken Brink, CCAS. “Tides and Tidal Forces.”
July 2018 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS.”Spectroscopy – Observational Basics, with a Live Demonstration.”
Aug 2018 – Drs. Anastasia Fialkov and Marion Dierickx, HSCfA. “Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts” and “Galactic Collisions in the Local Group.”
Sept 2018 – Dr. Mike Hunter, CCAS. “Astrophotography at CCAS.”
Oct 2018 – Dr. Tony Stark, HSCfA. “The Cosmic Background.”
Nov 2018 – Dr. Martina Arndt, Bridgewater State University. “The Beauty and Science of Total Solar Eclipses.”
Dec 2018 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS. “The Solar System – Its Formation and Basic Dynamics.”
2019 Speakers
Jan 2019 – Hugh Blair-Smith, MIT. “Left Brains for the Right Stuff: Computers, Space, and History.”
Feb 2019 – Dr. Ken Brink, CCAS. “Plasmas and Their Role in the Cosmos.”
Mar 2019 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS. “The Formation of the First Stars and Galaxies: Dr. Loeb’s Book Simplified for Us Amateurs.”
April 2019 – Dr. Charles J. Lada, Senior Astrophysicist, HSCfA,“Exploring the Great Hunter: Unlocking the secrets of star birth in Orion.”
May 2019 – Mr. Jim Mitchell, DYHS. “The Dennis-Yarmouth HS Astronomy Honors Project Program.”
June 2019 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS. “The proposed “observational projects” initiative.”
July 2019 – Dr. Larry Marschall, Gettysburg College. “ON BEYOND PLUTO”
August 2019 – Dr. Antony Stark, Senior Astronomer, HSCfA. “Imaging Black Holes”
Sept 2019 – Dr. David Wilner, Associate Director, Radio and Geoastronomy Division, HSCfA. “New Eyes on Planet Formation.”
Oct 2019 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS. “Modern Galaxies – A Brief Overview.”
Nov 2019 – Dr. Mark Reid, HSCfA. “Mapping the Milky Way: the BeSSeL Survey.”
Dec 2019 – Mr. Gary Walker, CCAS and Maria Mitchell Observatory. “Is sCMOS the next Imaging Revolution?”
2020 Speakers
January 2020 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS. “Basics of Optics for Amateur Astronomers.”
February, 2020 – Dr. Ken Brink, CCAS. “Oceans in Space.”
March 2020 – Dr. Glen Gawarkiewicz, WHOI and Mr. Paul Fucile, WHOI and CCAS. “Cubeseats.”
April 2020 – Postponed until March 2021 due to pandemic (Dr. Jim Gates)
May 2020 – DYHS Honors Projects. (Jim Lynch and Hank Ricci).
June 2020 – DYHS Honors Projects (cont’d) plus “Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances” Mr. George Silvis.
July 2020 – Brother Guy Consolmagno, Vatican Observatory. “Astronomical Ideas that Were Almost Correct.”
August 2020 – Dr. Tony Stark, HSCfA. “Astronomy Can Save Your Life: The Search for Near-Earth Objects.”
September 2020 – Dr. Charles Lada, HSCfA. “Adventures in Exploring Star Birth in the Uncharted Realm of the Cold Universe: 1970-1990.”
October 2020 –Dr. James Head, Brown University. “The Apollo Lunar Exploration Program.”
November 2020 – Dr. Larry Marschall, Gettysburg College. “An Astronomer Looks at Climate Change.”
December, 2020 – Dr. Frank Primini, HSCfA. “The Chandra Source Catalog.”
2021 Speakers
January 2021 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS. “What are Time and Space?”
February 2021 – Dr. James Head, Brown University. “The Chinese Space Program.”
March 2021 – Dr. Jim Gates, Brown University and Ms. Cathie Pelletier. “Proving Einstein Right.”
April 2021 – Dr. Emily Levesque, University of Washington. “The Last Stargazers.”
May 2021 – Dr. Keith Thorne, Caltech/LIGO Livingston. “Listening for Bumps in the Ocean of Night: Discovering Gravitational Waves With LIGO.”
June 2021 – Mr. George Silvis, CCAS/AAVSO. “SIDS, SNEWS, and AAVSO.”
July 2021 – Dr. Tom Spirock, Stellafane. “Lucky Imaging Results Using the 13” Schupmann Telescope at Stellafane and the 6” Warmer and Swasey Refractor at Mount Wilson.”
August 2021 – Dr. Antony Stark, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics “The CMB-S4 Experiment”
September 2021 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS and WHOI. “An Introduction to CCAS and Amateur Astronomy.”
October 2021 – Dr. Jim Head, Brown University. “Life on Mars: Was Mars’ Ancient Climate ‘Warm and Wet’ or “Cold and Icy.’”
November 2021 – Dr. Daniel Davis, Stony Brook University. “Turning Left for Three Decades: Still Gazing After all These Years.”
December 2021 – Dr. Delilah Gates, Princeton University. “Observational Signatures of Black Holes: Learning from Light?”