Compare views of Earth’s shining ionosphere: the Apollo 16 photo taken in 1972 is at left, and an image from NASA’s GOLD data visualization is at right - NASA/Apollo
  • Intro by Jeff Pivnick
  • Astronomy in South America – Ecuador & Galapagos – Jeff PivnickAstronomy in South America – Ecuador – Jeff Pivnick
    • Ecuador
      • Quito – “middle of the world” nearest to the Equator
      • Rene Descarte – Earth is prolate (bulging at the poles)
      • Isaac Newton – Earth is oblate (bulging at the equator)
      • France sent missions 1736-39 to both Lapland and Ecuador to perform arc measurements, proving an oblate shape
      • Ecuador erected two monuments to celebrate the geodetic missions on the Equator
      • Indigenous Equator monument (800BC) – more accurate!
      • Modern geodesy tells us the Earth is actually an oblate spheroid – Joe Carr
      • Chandler wobble – Randy Enkin
    • Galapagos Islands (Ecuador)
      • Islands discovered in 1535
      • Darwin mission
      • An active volcanic area – low viscosity basaltic lava
      • Wildlife – rare species
      • “Galapagos” is a Spanish name for turtle
      • 14″ south of the Equator
      • How to find the South Celestial Pole using the Southern Cross and pointer stars
      • Polaris should be visible from slightly south of the Equator
      • No soil on newly-formed islands, so very few plants except cactus. Ecology changes dramatically from island to island.
  • Only Bad Astronomers Forget Generally Known Mnemonics (Stellar Classification) – Randy Enkin
    • 19th century saw massive collection of astronomical data about stars
    • 1881 – Harvard College Observatory (HCO) – Edward Pickering, Williamina Flemming – Henry Draper Catalogue in 1886
    • 1863 – Angelo Secchi, a Jesuit at the papal observatory – created star classes I, II, III
    • 1887 – Antonia Maury hired to produce a classification system for spectra
    • 1895 – Orion Lines – William Ramsey
    • 1896 – Annie Jump Cannon – a human computer at HCO – improved, simplified 7-class scheme – OBAFGKM
    • References
    • Discussion
  • The Solar Wind – a follow-up – Marjie Welchframe
    • Protons and electrons from helium, hydrogen
    • “Particles” – are real but very tiny, so they can only be detected when they are energetic
    • Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on their Apollo mission moon walk brought back solar wind particles caught by an aluminum sail
  • Astrophotography
  • Earth’s Shining Upper Atmosphere — From the Apollo Era to the Present – False colour image of Earth’s UV light with atomic Hydrogen blocked and atomic Oxygen and Nitrogen transmission – taken in 1972 by Apollo 16 mission using using Dr. Carruthers’ telescopic instrument.
  • Events

Video transcript of meeting

Astronomy Cafe – Oct 28, 2024
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