We are pleased to announced that a new endowment has been established to support the Department of Physics & Astronomy: Dr. and Mrs. Thomas R. Connon Physics and Astronomy Department Fund Dr. Thomas Connon, O.D., and his wife, Sue Ann Connon, were both students at IUSB in the 1970s. Dr. Connon worked closely with Professors… Read more »
Departmental News
Meet the “Stars” Event
Details: The IUSB Observatory will be open, weather permitting, from 7:00-8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 15. Two of the best object for visual observing, Saturn and Jupiter, are in the evening sky these days, and we’ll be slewing the telescope back and forth between them, with maybe a short detour to Uranus, during this event…. Read more »
Physics Club Hosts Renewable Energy Competition for IUSB Sustainability Challenge
As part of this month’s Sustainability Challenge (a series of campus-wide activities related to IU’s Climate Action Plan), the Physics Club hosted a “Renewable Energy Competition” on Tuesday, October 24th. Although billed as a competition, this was more of a fun, participation-based activity to get people together and think about renewable-energy technology — harnessing wind… Read more »
2023 Adams’ Night at the Observatory
Physics faculty members Jerry Hinnefeld and Henry Scott hosted the Adams High School Science Department Chair, Matthew McQueen, and students from two of his Fall 2023 astronomy classes, for a special Meet the Stars event at the IUSB Observatory on Monday, October 16th. There were over twenty people in the Adams group, including some parents… Read more »
2023 Welcome Back Fair
The Physics Club staffed a table for the Fall 2023 Welcome Back Fair on Monday, August 21st21, with members and faculty taking turns to greet students and welcome new members to the club.
Dataloggers for the Classroom and Industry
Four physics majors are working with Dr. Davis and Dr. Levine on data logger projects. These are devices which control and read input from sensors and save them to an SD card for later use. Thus far, their designs utilize an Arduino microcontroller, custom circuit boards, and a simplified C-like open-source language. Versions have been… Read more »
Physics-Marine Biology Collaboration to Reduce Shark Bycatch
IUSB physics professors Ilan Levine and Brian Davis, in coordination with emeritus biology professor Peter Bushnell, have established a broad collaboration with three different teams of marine biologists in an effort to reduce shark bycatch – the inadvertent catching of sharks – in commercial fishing operations. Notably, sharks have an organ which detects electric fields,… Read more »
Prof. Davis Interviewed by ABC57 Regarding August Fireball Over Kentucky
Professor Davis was interviewed by ABC57’s Gordy Young about meteors and, more specifically, the fireball that was observed on August 2nd in Kentucky. Here’s a direct link to the clip: https://abc57.com/news
“New” Telescope Acquired by Department
The department received a generous donation of an 11″ Scmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT), manufactured by Celestron, from a community member last week. It’s an older model, but it has a motorized drive, and the primary mirror is in excellent shape. This won’t replace the 16″ telescope in our rooftop observatory, but we’re excited about new possibilities… Read more »
Prof. Davis Interviewed by ABC57 Regarding Recent James Webb Telescope Findings
Prof. Brian Davis was interviewed on July 9th by Emmet Twomey for ABC57 regarding recent discoveries by the James Webb Telescope; here’s a direct link to the interview hosted by abc57.com.