Lectures

RECENT lectures ARE NOW on our youtube channel: Click HERE

LECTURES will be held live but you can still attend via zoom.

Fridays. Meetings begin at 7:30 pm.
David Pecker Conference Room, Willcox Hall, Pace University, Pleasantville

The David Pecker Conference Room is ideal for our meetings, especially when social distancing is still recommended. It is large (seats 120), spacious, and tiered, with desks and wheeled chairs. It has excellent computer and audiovisual equipment.

Lecture dates for 2024
Second Friday of each month except for October due to a conflict with Yom Kippur

June 14
September 13
October 18
November 8
December 13

Pace University will no longer require campus visitors to provide proof of vaccination or a recent negative test. However, we continue to recommend that visitors receive a primary COVID-19 vaccine series and remain up-to-date on boosters. Visitors and event attendees should stay home if they feel ill.

Lectures take place in Wilcox Hall (not Lienhard as in the past). Wilcox Hall is just inside the main entrance to Pace, on the right after the first parking lot. There is ample parking. Enter the building and turn left. The lecture hall is just down some steps and then to your left, Pecker Lecture Hall.

On certain lecture dates, the Main Gate may be closed. Entry will be through Gate 3. The route to Willcox is a bit complicated. Please click here for a map that will guide you.

November Meeting & Lecture (10/21/2024)
WAA November Meeting

Friday, November 8 at 7:30 pm
David Pecker Conference Room, Willcox Hall, Pace University, Pleasantville, NY

LIVE and via Zoom (link on WAA home page)

Evaporating Exoplanet Atmospheres

W. Garrett Levine
Department of Astronomy, Yale University

Among the most surprising discoveries in the exoplanet era is the number of short-period planets with orbits smaller than that of Mercury. Because these planets are so close to their host stars, theoretical models hypothesize that their atmospheres are at-risk of evaporating due to intense stellar ultraviolet and X-Ray irradiation. Some of those predictions have recently been confirmed with data from telescopes including Hubble and JWST. This talk will describe how this new branch of research places longstanding results from solar system geoscience in an exoplanet context and will conclude with a discussion of how amateur astronomers are supporting these ongoing observational campaigns.

The speaker will be with us at Pace, so WAA members and guests are encouraged to come to the meeting.!

Free & open to the public.
October Meeting (9/30/2024)
Friday, October 18 at 7:30 p.m.

Live at David Pecker Conference Room, Willcox Hall, Pace University, Pleasantville NY or via Zoom

Monster Black Holes at the Edge of the Universe

Zoltan Haiman, PhD
Department of Astronomy, Columbia University

Black holes as massive as several billion solar masses appeared within a billion years after the Big Bang. The origin of these objects remains a mystery. Prof. Haiman will present state-of-the art speculations on how such massive black holes may have formed in the early universe from black hole remnants of the first stars, via rapid gas accretion, or via successive mergers. Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and with the space-based gravitational-wave detector called Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will help us understand the origin of massive black holes, as well as their subsequent growth through gas accretion and mergers.

Free & open to the public. In-person attendance encouraged. Meet & greet WAA members.

If you wish to attend via Zoom, the link is on the WAA home page.

Please note: this is the 3rd Friday of the month. The second Friday is Yom Kippur. The remaining talks in 2024 will be on the second Friday of the month.
Members’ Night 2024 (6/28/2024)
Friday, September 13, 2024 7:30 p.m.
Via Zoom Only

Members’ Night

One of the most popular meetings of the year is our annual “Member’s Night.” Club members present talks on a vast range of subjects of astronomical interest, including their astronomy trips, observations, new equipment, imaging techniques, and other topics.

Members interested in presenting should email WAA’s Vice President for Programs, Pat Mahon, at waa-programs@westchesterastronomers.org.

This meeting will be held online via Zoom only.

Roman Tytla at WAA Members’ Night
June 14 Meeting (5/13/2024)
Friday, June 14 at 7:30 p.m.

David Pecker Conference Room, WIllcox Hall, Pace University, Pleasantville, NY or via ZOOM (link on home page.

Solving the Missing Baryon Problem with Fast Radio Bursts

Isabel Medlock
Department of Astronomy, Yale University

Recently discovered fast radio bursts, milliseconds long, extremely energetic radio pulses of mysterious origins, are not only fascinating phenomena in themselves but also exciting as a tool to answer astrophysical and cosmological questions about the nature of our universe. In this talk, I will review the discovery and history of fast radio bursts and their potential as cosmological probes. In particular, fast radio bursts are a potential path to resolving the missing baryon problem, the discrepancy between the baryons we observe in the universe and the amount predicted by Big Bang nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background. I will highlight the discoveries already made and the promising future possibilities with the advent of facilities like CHIME and DSA-2000 which will discover and localize tens of thousands of FRBs per year.

I am a third-year Ph.D. candidate at the Astronomy Department at Yale University working with Prof. Daisuke Nagai. I was born and raised in Philadelphia, where I attended a Spanish Immersion elementary and middle school and a project-based high school. In May of 2021, I graduated with honors from Princeton University with a B.A. in Astrophysics and minors in Computer Science and Russian Language and Culture. I matriculated to the Yale University Astronomy Department in the Fall of 2021 to pursue my PhD in Astrophysics. My research interests broadly lay in computational cosmology. Specifically, I am interested in a wide range of topics including fast radio bursts, the circumgalactic medium, feedback in hydrodynamical simulations, and cold streams that feed star-forming high-z galaxies. Outside of research, I am passionate about increasing the accessibility of astronomy in the Latinx community.

Free & open to the public.
May 2024 WAA Meeting (4/16/2024)
Friday, May 10 at 7:30 pm

Live at David Pecker Conference Room, Willcox Hall, Pace University, Pleasantville, NY or via Zoom

Funding the Final Frontier

Emma Loudon

Department of Astronomy, Yale University

This interactive, in-person talk will explore the intricate dynamics of funding for space exploration, with a particular focus on NASA’s profound impact on society. We’ll discover how strategic investments in space missions have advanced our scientific understanding and spurred innovations that permeate everyday life. From technological advancements to fostering international cooperation, we will learn how NASA’s budgeting decisions shape economic growth, technological innovation, and even the geopolitical landscape. The vast societal returns generated by funding space exploration argue for continued investment in reaching beyond our earthly confines for what some would call less practical reasons. Join astrophysicist Emma Louden (@exoplanet_emma) as she charts the course from fiscal inputs to astronomical impacts, highlighting why pursuing the unknown yields dividends far beyond the stars.

Free and open to the public.
April Club Meeting (3/11/2024)
April 12, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.

Live at David Pecker Conference Room, Pace University, Pleasantville, NY or via ZOOM (Zoom link on WAA homepage)

The History of the Universe, from 1919 to Today

Jeremy Tinker, PhD
Associate Professor at the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics and the Department of Physics at NYU

Dr. Tinker will review the discoveries that led to our current understand of the state of the universe, starting with the confirmation of Einstein’s relativity, through the discovery of the expansion of the universe, and the pursuit of the nature of the universe that led to the discovery that the expansion of the universe is speeding up.

Dr. Tinker at the Jantar Mantar Observatory, Jaipur, India.

Free and open to the public.
March 2024 Meeting (2/22/2024)
Friday, March 8 at 7:30 pm

Galactic Archeology

Allyson Sheffield, Ph.D.

Professor of Physics,
LaGuardia Community College & American Museum of Natural History

How did the Milky Way get to look the way it looks today? Are there “cosmic fossils” that can be collected and studied, in the same way that the Earth’s history is probed with terrestrial fossils? The answer is yes, and one manifestation of these cosmic fossils are groups of stars called stellar streams. The identification of stellar streams associated with the Milky Way provide a way of looking at events that occurred billions of years ago, in some cases right after our galaxy formed. In this talk, Dr. Sheffield will discuss what stellar streams are, how they form, and how they can be found using large data sets..

The meeting is free and open to the public. We encourage live attendance so you can meet and greet fellow WAA members. If you can’t make it to Pace University, you can watch it on line. The Zoom link is on the Home page.
February 2024 Meeting (1/16/2024)
LIVE at Pace University or via Zoom (see Home page for link)

Friday, February 9 at 7:30 pm

The Vera Rubin Observatory and LuSEE Night

Steve Bellavia

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Two of the most recent projects at the Brookhaven National Laboratory are the camera for the Vera Rubin Telescope (formerly called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope) and the LuSEE at Night lunar radio telescope. Steve will discuss how these two instruments are designed and built and describe their scientific goals.

Steve is an amateur astronomer, astrophotographer and telescope maker. He’s been at Brookhaven National Laboratory since 1992 and is the principal mechanical engineer for the Vera Rubin camera, the largest and most sophisticated astronomy camera ever built. He is an assistant adjunct professor of astronomy and physics at Suffolk County Community College and the Astronomy Education and Outreach Coordinator at the Custer Institute and Observatory in Southold, New York.

Free and open to the public!
January 2024 Meeting (12/14/2023)
WAA Meeting & Lecture
Friday, January 12 at 7:30 pm

Live at David Pecker Conference Room, Willcox Hall, Pace University or via Zoom
(link on WAA home page)

Astronomy Education’s Changing Perspective

Marc Taylor
Senior Manager, Planetarium and Science Programs. Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY,

In the past, astronomy education was largely about mathematics, observing techniques, and perhaps theological interpretations of those observations. Over the past 75 years, astronomy education has democratized and become more widely available to all ages, backgrounds, and interests, and can now take us to other worlds and other times. But there has been another change, very recent, permeating the sciences and science education as well — and this newest turn is not really about astronomy at all…

A native of Upstate New York, Marc grew up exploring the woods and streams of the Hudson Valley, and investigating the wider world through popular accounts of science, his father’s math textbooks, and whatever science television programs could reach the family rooftop antenna through the hills of the Hudson Highlands. He attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, graduating in 1993 with a degree in art and a focus on geology, having also studied art history, biology, physics, and chemistry. A summer job at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, led to the field of science education. Over the past ten years, as awareness and alarm about ecological issues has grown, Marc has been bringing in more elements of local ecology into programs at the Hudson River Museum; leading nature walks and creating ecology-focused activities and workshops for the public. He is currently pursuing an Urban Naturalist certificate from the New York Botanical Garden and planning for the 2024 Solar Eclipse.

Free and open to the public.
September 8th Meeting: Members’ Night (6/14/2023)
Friday, September 10th
Live at David Pecker Conference Room, Willcox Hall, Pace University and via Zoom

Members’ Night

One of the most popular meetings of the year is our annual “Member’s Night.” Club members present talks on a vast range of subjects of astronomical interest, including their astronomy trips, observations, new equipment, imaging techniques, and other topics.

Members interested in presenting should email WAA’s Vice President for Programs, Pat Mahon, at waa-programs@westchesterastronomers.org.

In-person attendance is always encouraged. Meet and greet fellow amateur astronomers.

Roman Tytla at WAA Members’ Night