On April 21, 2012 the
Kalamazoo Astronomical Society (KAS) will hold its annual award-winning Astronomy
Day, a day-long
celebration featuring educational displays, hands-on activities, and
special presentations to bring science alive for the entire community. This
FREE event, aimed at
the general public,
including families with school age children, is intended to
widen knowledge and appreciation of science, particularly of astronomy.
This year our
very special guest will be
Dr. Jill Tarter, Science
Working Group member for NASA's Kepler Space Telescope and Director of
the Center for SETI Research. She is one of the few
researchers to have devoted her career to hunting for signs of sentient
beings elsewhere, and there are few aspects of this field that have not
been affected by her work.
In honor of
the Kepler Space Telescope's mission and Dr. Tarter's visit
the theme of Astronomy Day 2012 is transiting
worlds. The Kepler telescope is designed to
discover planets orbiting other stars. Kepler
continuously monitors the brightness of over 100,000 stars in a
fixed field of view. The data collected from these observations is
analyzed to
detect periodic fluctuations that indicate the
presence of extrasolar planets (planets outside our solar system) that
are in the process of crossing (transiting) the face of other stars.
The KAS will also celebrate the
Transit of Venus
that will take place on June 5th. This is the last Transit of
Venus that will occur in our lifetime. The last
transit occurred in 2004, but the next won't take place until
2117! Transits of Venus are so rare that only six have been observed by
humans since 1639.
This year we are pleased to welcome the Air Zoo as
a co-sponsor. The Air Zoo will host our daytime
activities from 10 am - 4 pm. These include solar observing,
educational and informative displays, hands-on activities for
children,
free planetariums shows, and
special presentations on how and when to safely observe the Transit of Venus.
Evening
activities will be held at the Kalamazoo Nature Center. Dr. Tarter's
keynote presentation will be on the Kepler Space
Telescope's quest
to discover an earth-like planet.
Please be sure to see our
keynote presentation page for ticket information. Astronomy Day concludes with observing under the night sky.
The KAS would also like to thank the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation and
members of the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society for their generous
contributions.
Below is the schedule of events to take place on April 21st. More
detailed information on all of our activities can be found throughout
this special website. Please feel free to
contact us
if you have any further comments or questions. Thank you and see you on Astronomy Day!
