The Cape Cod Astronomical Society usually holds a monthly meeting, with a guest speaker, in the DYHS school library (the library is in the front right-side of the school as you face it from Station Avenue) which is located at:
Dennis-Yarmouth High School
210 Station Ave, South Yarmouth, MA 02664
The meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month beginning at 7:30pm. After the guest speaker has concluded their engagement, society members will usually have a discussion of society interests.
During the Covid-19 emergency, physical meetings and our dinner (see below) have been suspended. However, efforts are being made to have meetings online. Check with First Light Lite and our Society calendar to see what events are being scheduled.
Gus Romano or his delegate “host” a dutch-treat dinner gathering for members and friends of the Society each meeting night. The speaker for each meeting is always invited. Please join the group to dine and talk about all things interesting, including astronomy! Check the calendar for time and location information.
* If you would like to give a talk, either as the main speaker of the evening, or as an ancillary speaker, please notify Jim Lynch at jlynch@whoi.edu.
PREVIOUS SPEAKERS (2016-Present)
This list is not just a catalogue of the great speakers and talks we’ve enjoyed over the past 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?”
2022 Speakers
January 2022 – Mr. Charles Law, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “A New View on the Universe: the James Webb Space Telescope.”
February 2022 – Dr. Jim Lynch, Mr. Charlie Burke, Dr. Mike Hunter. CCAS. “CCAS: Current Status and Future Plans.”
March 2022 – Mr. Stephen LaFlamme, CCAS. “My career as an amateur astronomer.”
April 2022 – Dr. Hugh H. Crowl, Bennington College. “How Do Galaxies Lose Their Gas? Galaxy Transformation in the Virgo Cluster.”
May 2022 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS , “A Two-Part Invention”
June 2022 – Dr. Larry Marschall, Gettysburg College, “The Astronomer’s Disappearing Sky”
July 2022 – Dr. Antony Stark, HSCfA, “Astronomy’s Final Frontier: the Dark Ages at High Redshift”
August 2022 – Steve LaFlamme, CCAS. “Astrophotography From A Home Observatory.”
September 2022 – Open Zoom meeting on CCAS affairs.
October 2022 – James Lowenthal, Smith College, “Unscrambling the view from Earth of the brightest starburst galaxies”
November 2022 – Dr. Martin Elvis, HSCfA. “Asteroids – How love, fear and greed will determine our future in space.”
December 2022 – Dr. Nathan Whitehorn, Michigan State University. “Neutrino Astronomy.”
2023 Speakers
January 2023 – No speaker.
February 2023 – Dr. Or Graur, University of Portsmouth. “The science of exploding stars.”
March 2023 – Dr. Jim Lynch. “Dark matter.”
April 2023 – Dr. Jim Head, Brown University. “Future Lunar destinations for China’s Chang’e 6,7 and 8 missions.”
May 2023 – Dr. Laura McLaughlin, W. Virginia University. “The hunt for monster black holes with pulsar timing arrays.”
June 2023 – Dr. Peter Plavchan, George Mason University. “Exoplanets.”
July 2023 – Dr. Giuseppina Fabiano, HSCfA. “Chandra and the supermassive black hole (SMBH) / Galaxy interaction.”
August 2023 – Dr. Antony Stark, HSCfA. “The golden age of cosmology.”
September 2023 – Dr. Manasvi Lingam, Florida Institute of Technology. “Life in the cosmos.”
October 2023 – Dr. Martina Arndt, Bridgewater State University. “The beauty and science of solar eclipses.”
November 2023 – Dr. Frank Isik, CCAS. “Terrestrial and space-based telescopes on the horizon.”
December 2023 – Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS, and Mr. Yaz Aubrey, Falmouth Academy. “How the first stars and galaxies formed revisited.”
2024 Speakers
January 2024 – No speaker.
February 2024 – Dr. Sarah Wellons, Wesleyan University. “Simulating the growth of galaxies and supermassive black holes.”
Mar 24 Dr. Maria Kazachenko, U of Colorado, Boulder and NSO “Living in the Golden Age of Solar Physics”
April 24 Dr. Jim Lynch, WHOI/CCAS “Current Events & status of CCAS—a Discussion”
May 24 CCAS Members “The April Solar Eclipse: CCAS Observations”
June 24 Ms. Rebecca Boyle, “Our Moon”
July 24 No Talk
Aug 24 Dr. Tony Stark, HSCfA “The LSST survey and you”
Sept 24 Dr. Antonio Hales, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, “ALMA studies of eruptive stars”
Oct 24 Dr. Kevin Hainline, Arizona U. “Distant galaxies”
Nov 24 Dr. Jim Lynch, WHOI/CCAS “A Higgs Universe and the flow of time”
Dec 24 Dr. Mario Motta “Human and Environmental Effects of LED lighting and to minimize the effects”
2025
Jan 25 Dr. Stacy McGaugh, Case Western Univ “Does Dark Matter make the galaxies go ‘round?”
Feb 25 Dr Andrew Woods, Univ Arizona “Space Law”
Mar 25 CCAS Members “Recent CCAS Technical Activities”
April 25 Dr. Rob Zellem, NASA Goddard “Exoplanets, the Roman Space Telescope, and the future spaceflight missions”
May 25 Ms. Sarah McCandless, NASA/JPL “Planetary Defense from asteroids and space junk—NASA engages”
June 25 Dr. James Dottin, III, Brown Univ “Endogenous, yet exotic, sulfur in the lunar mantle”
July 25 Dr. Avi Loeb, Harvard Univ “The search for interstellar objects of technological origin”
Aug 25 Dr. Tony Stark, HscAP “The shapes of galaxies past and present”
Sept 25 Dr. Mario Motta “Building and using his 32” telescope
Oct 25 Dr. Wanying Kang, MIT “Deciphering the icy satellites: from ice shell geometry to the ocean dynamics”
Nov 25 CCAS Members “Small, smart telescopes and CCAS project ideas”
Dec 25 Dr. Paul O’Connor, Brookhaven National Laboratory “Radio Light from the far side of the moon: The LuSee-Night NASA Mission to operate a radio telescope on the Lunar far side”
2026
Jan 26 No Speaker
Feb 26 Dr Jim Lynch, WHOI/CCAS “Cosmology—the large and small of it”
Mar 26 Dr. Tracy Becker, Southwest Research Institute “Europa Clipper UVS Observations of 3I/ATLAS”
April 26 Dr. Jackie Milingo, Maria Mitchell Association “Stewarding the past, present, and future of astronomy at the Maria Mitchell Association”
May 26, Dr. Jim Lynch, CCAS. Cosmology history from 1899 to present.
June 26 Dr. Keaton Bell, CUNY, NY “White Dwarf Asteroseismology”