Calendar of Astronomy Events in Southeast Michigan

The University Lowbrow Astronomers (Lowbrows for short) maintains an astronomy calendar. This calendar is focused on events in the Southeast Michigan area and includes:

1. Open Houses at Peach Mountain Observatory (located near Dexter Michigan).
2. Club Meetings of the Lowbrows (held on the central campus of the University of Michigan).
3. Other astronomy events that may be of interest in the Southeast Michigan Area.

You don't need to be a club member or affiliated with the University of Michigan to attend these events. There are four different ways to view the calendar:

1. Go to the web page: http://www.umich.edu/~lowbrows/calendar/

2. If you have an Android tablet or smartphone, you can download the Lowbrow App at

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.lowbrows.lowbrowapp

This app is free. You can view the calendar directly from the app.

3. If you use a calendar program that supports the ICAL format (such as Google Calendar), you can subscribe to the Lowbrow Calendar by using the subscribe function within your calendar program. This will allow you to view Lowbrow events along with the events in your personal calendar and/or other calendars. When subscribing to the calendar, you will be asked for a URL. This is the URL:

http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/lowbrowcalendar%40gmail.com/public/basic.ics

4. If you use a calendar program that supports the ICAL format (such as Google Calendar), you can take a snapshot by downloading this file:

http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/lowbrowcalendar%40gmail.com/public/basic.ics

and importing it into your program. The events in the Lowbrow calendar will be added to events already in your calendar, but if there are changes to the Lowbrow calendar they will not be automatically incorporated into your calendar without a subsequent import.

Optical Society of America Meeting

Hi All,

Please join us for the last AA OSA talk of the 2012-2013 school year.  The April AA OSA meeting is NOT on Tuesday, the 9th; it is on Tuesday, the 16th!  We will also be planning an "Optics & Beer" event for May.

David Shindell

AA OSA current president

Optical Society of America

Ann Arbor Local Section

Public Meeting Notice

Tuesday, 16 April 2013, 8:00-9:45 pm

Location: U-M EECS Room 1005

Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Building

North Campus, University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Optical Signal Processing

Dr. Jeffrey A. Fessler

University of Michigan, EECS Dept., Ann Arbor  MI

Flyer for this event

Ann Arbor Optical Society of America Meeting

Please join the AA OSA Next Tuesday (March 12) for our 2013 National OSA Speaker Lecture - Dr. H. Philip Stahl of NASA Marshall SFC - "The James Webb Space Telescope: The First Light Machine".  The lecture promises to be very interesting and informative.  We look forward to seeing everyone there.

Flyer for this event

Optical Society of America Industry Snapshot Night

The AA OSA Optics & Photonics Industry Snapshot Night is next Tuesday, 26 Feb 2013.  Please plan on joining us, first for networking and food and then for the presentations and exhibits.  Also, mark your calendars for the particularly interesting talk next month by Dr. H. Philip Stahl of NASA Marshall SFC on "The James Webb Space Telescope: First Light Machine."

For more details see the Meeting Flyer

Optical Society of America Meeting

On Wednesday February 13, the Optical Society of America (Ann Arbor Local Section) will hold a meeting. Dr. Yang Li of Rigaku Innovative Technologies will speak on “Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells.” (Hosted by the Optical Society of America, 8:00-9:45 PM).

Meeting Flier.

10th Annual FAAC Astronomy Show & Swap Meet

Dear Fellow Amateur Astronomer,

You and fellow Club members are invited to attend the Tenth Annual FAAC (Ford Amateur Astronomy Club) Astronomy Show & Swap Meet. It will be held at the Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 30650 Six Mile Road in Livonia, Michigan on Saturday, March 16, 2013. Attached is a flyer describing the Swap Meet. This year in addition to the sale of new / used Astronomy Equipment and Astronomy Presentations throughout the day, we will be featuring a Planetarium on site for kids to get their first exposure to Astronomy.

Swap Meet Flyer

AA OSA Meetings....

From the AA OSA....

Sorry for not updating you earlier on the AA OSA meeting for tomorrow, Tuesday, 15 January 2013.

We are having our Winter Organizational Meeting (! starting at 7pm !) to discuss the preparations and support needed for our next two special events.

We need as many people involved as we can to make these special events a success.  Please be there!

AA OSA Industry Night / Job Fair is scheduled for Tuesday, 26 February 2013 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM at AA SPARK Central.  Michelle Stock (Chair of the Mi-Light, Michigan's Photonics Cluster) will give an overview of Optics & Photonics in Michigan and we hope to have many companies participate.

AA OSA Meeting / Talk by Dr. Stahl of NASA Marshall (National OSA Speaker) talking on "The James Webb Space Telescope: The First Light Machine" is scheduled for Tuesday, 12 March 2013 from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM at EECS Rm# 1005.

Our February AA OSA Meeting / Talk has also been moved - from Tuesday to Wednesday, 13 February 2013 - Dr. Yang Li (Rigaku Innovative Technologies) will talk about "Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells".  It will also be at EECS Rm# 1005.

Note that the starting time for the Winter Organizational Meeting has been moved up to 7pm as there will not be a dinner at Paesano's before hand.  Please join us and provide us with your input and help to make these special events a success!

AA OSA Meeting Next Tuesday, 11 December 2012

All,

It is rare that we have such an exciting talk and great speaker, but Dr. Stephen Rand has agreed to cover practical applications of his research in "New Frontiers in Non-Linear Optics".  I really recommend that people try to make this last AA OSA meeting of 2012.  As always, everyone is invited to join us for dinner at Paesano's prior to the meeting.  (We have also shifted the date for our January meeting due to the holidays to Tuesday, the 15th of January, as the 2nd Tuesday seemed too tight for people coming back from the holiday break.)  I hope to see all of you at this talk!

Meeting Flyer

November Club Meeting:

The University Lowbrow Astronomers are meeting on Friday, November 16 at 7:30 PM. The location is room 130 of the Dennison Building, 500 Church Street, Ann Arbor, Mi. Our guest speaker is Professor Edwin Loh from Michigan State University. He will be speaking about the SOAR telescope located in the mountains of Chile and the Spartan Camera. This camera is the main instrument attached to the SOAR telescope and it was designed and built by Edwin and colleagues at MSU. The public is welcome to this and all monthly club meetings.

AA OSA Meeting next Tuesday, 13 November - How to Make Your Own Color Holograms

I'm passing along this notice from the Ann Arbor Optical Society of America:

One again, we are having an excellent and interesting talk this month - "How to Make Your Own Color Holograms" by John Nees on 13 November (Next Tuesday) and then in December, a talk by Dr. Stephen Rand on "New Frontiers in Non-Linear Optics" (11 December).  We encourage you to come and also let other people know who might find these AA OSA talks interesting.

Meeting Flyer

Mars Science Lab Curiosity.

On Friday, September 28, Nilton Renno (from the University of Michigan Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences) gave a talk to the club entitled “Mars Science Lab Curiosity.”

Back in March, Nilton had given us a talk entitled “Deliquescence and Liquid Water on Mars.” In short, it is now known that liquid salty water is present on the surface of Mars, at least in some locations and during some parts of the Martian year (most of the time water is present in the form of ice).

There was another spacecraft on its way to Mars, the Mars Science Lab Curiosity, which was scheduled to land in August. After his first talk, Nilton agreed to come back for a second talk, after the lander made it to Mars. This was a somewhat risky proposition since many past attempts to land spacecraft on the red planet have ended in failure, and a talk about a failed Mars mission might be rather short.

As it happened, Curiosity successfully landed on the surface of Mars on August 6. There were only a few minor issues. Thus Nilton's second talk on September 28.

During the September talk, Nilton described the mission and its goals. Unfortunately it will take some time to sort out the science results. At the time of the talk, Nilton could only give us a few hints.

Photograph by John Causland.

Links:

• Photographs from This Talk.
• A List of Other Lowbrow talks (if you follow this link, you will find powerpoint files for some talks).
• The NASA Mars Science Laboratory Website.

AA OSA Special Tour on Tuesday, 23 October

The Optical Society of American (OSA) is having a Special Tour next week, on Tuesday, 23rd October.  We will be meeting at the Eastern Michigan University Physics & Astronomy Dept. to see and hear about their new Planetarium facility, the digital projection equipment and the Sherzer Observatory / telescope on the roof.  We will hear about the departmental facilities, faculty and areas of exploration.  I encourage everyone to attend, as this is really going to be an interesting tour.

Meeting Flyer

AA OSA Presentation on How to Micro-Machine with Lasers

Hi everyone,

We have a very interesting presentation tomorrow night (Tuesday, 09 October) with Philippe Bado (Translume) and Larry Walker (Clark-MXR) talking with you about "How to Micro-Machine with Lasers".  Please see the attached meeting flyer and post it in a prominent location for others who might be interested.

The location: the University of Michigan North Campus, EECS Room 1005, Ann Arbor Michigan.

Meeting flyer