CANCELED!!! (due to clouds) Details: The IUSB Observatory will be open, weather permitting, from 6:45-8:00 p.m. on Friday, February 28. All seven of the other planets in the solar system will be above the horizon briefly in the early evening sky, and we plan to look at a few of them through the 16″ telescope… Read more »
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Alum Sabrina Whitaker Wins National AAPT Travel Grant
Sabrina Whitaker (BS Physics ’07) has been named the recipient of the 2025 Barbara Wolff-Reichert Travel Grant by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). Here’s the press release. Congratulations, Sara!
Lunch with Alum E-Lexus Thornton
E-Lexus Thornton (BS Physics ’18) had lunch with Prof. Emeritus Jerry Hinnefeld at The Chocolate Cafe while back in town over the holidays. E-Lexus earned an MS in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kentucky as part of an APS Bridge program, and he now works as a Quality Engineer for Toyota in Kentucky. We… Read more »
Honors Night 2024
The College of Arts & Sciences celebrated its annual Honors Night on Thursday, May 2nd. The Department of Physics & Astronomy gave several awards: Excellence Award in Physics Phillip Derrickson Ƶ Scholarship (for 2024 – 2025) Nicholas Good CTS Scholarship in Physics (for 2024 – 2025) Akira Clark Cosmo Cripe Ryleigh Jebson Josiah Nelson
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 »
Teaming Up with Concord Elementary Weather Balloon Launch
Students in the Concord school system launch weather balloons each year to learn about project design and development, collaboration and, of course, the atmosphere. Since 2017 this annual project / event has been led by Ms. Elizabeth King, who is the teacher for high-ability students at Concord Ox-Bow. Here’s coverage, including pictures and video, from… Read more »
MTS Event: Wednesday, April 12th (Venus, Mars, and Stars!)
CURRENT STATUS: Conditions for the 12th are looking good! Details: The IUSB Observatory will be open, weather permitting, from 8:30-10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12th. Venus will still be high enough to view with the telescope at 8:30. Then we’ll have a look at Mars, and then a variety of star clusters and maybe a… Read more »
Green Comet
I braved the cold Tuesday night (11F when I finished at 10 pm) to get a few photos of comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) from the IUSB Observatory, using our color CCD camera and the 90 mm aperture refractor. The field of view is too small to see the tail — about a quarter of a… Read more »
Orion Nebula
I had hoped to capture an image of comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) during the brief break in the clouds on Jan. 23, but it was too low in the sky — barely 10 deg above the horizon. Instead, I took a few photos of the Orion Nebula. The photo below was taken with our Atik… Read more »
Club Leadership Meeting with National Director
Dr. Brad Conrad, Director, Society of Physics Students (SPS) and Sigma Pi Sigma (ΣΠΣ), was in town to visit Saint Mary’s College as part of their inaugural ΣΠΣ inductions and reached out to meet with our club leadership. Fortunately, even though it was after finals, and even commencement, outgoing president Cody Crip, and incoming co-presidents… Read more »