Tonight’s Host: Dr. Lauren Corlies

This Evening’s Lectures

Science Lecture

(presented twice)

Dr. Steph Sallum

UC Irvine

“Imaging Exoplanets with the World’s Largest Telescopes”

Dr. Steph Sallum is an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UC Irvine.  She studies planet formation directly with high resolution imaging and interferometry. She develops and applies interferometric techniques on adaptive-optics corrected telescopes, and uses them to image young stars and protoplanetary disks. This approach allows her to probe smaller angular separations than “traditional” imaging techniques, expanding the parameter space for exoplanet and disk detections. She is also involved in exoplanet imaging instrument development as the Project Scientist for the Keck/SCALES integral field spectrograph, and as a member of the TMT/Planetary Systems Imager team.

History Lecture

(1st Presentation)

Monique Windju

Monique Windju graduated with a degree in Astrophysics from UC Santa Cruz in 2019. As an undergraduate they participated in research on dead stars in compact binary systems. They fell in love with telling stories about astrophysical objects and their fascinating life cycles, in a way that the general public can understand and appreciate. Monique joined Lick Observatory as a Public Programs Telescope Operator in 2022.

History Lecture

(2nd Presentation)

Keith Wandry

Keith Wandry’s interest in astronomy was born from watching our nation’s efforts and eventual success in landing on the Moon.  In his youth he was given a small refracting telescope and a moon globe from which his interest in astronomy blossomed. Keith has been an amateur astronomer for over 30 years, been involved with public and youth star parties and has a particular interest in comets and meteorites. He has been associated with Lick Observatory in various capacities since 1996.

Tonight’s Telescopes & Objects

Lick Observatory’s 36-inch Great Refractor saw “first light” in 1888. At the time, it was the largest refracting telescope in the world. It is an enduring memorial to James Lick’s philanthropy and his final resting place.

For nearly 300 years after Galileo first turned a telescope toward the heavens it was believed that the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, had just four moons. In 1892, using the Lick’s 36-inch Great Refractor, Edward Barnard discovered a fifth moon, the much fainter Amalthea, the last moon of any planet to be discovered without the aid of photography, electronic detectors or space-based telescopes.

The 36-inch telescope will show you an interesting astronomical object of the telescope operator’s choosing. This may be a globular cluster of stars, a binary star, or a galaxy.

The Nickel 40-inch Reflector, named for philanthropist Anna Nickel, was designed and built in the Lick Observatory Technical Facilities at UC Santa Cruz and completed in 1979. The 40” diameter mirror of this modern telescope makes it the third most powerful telescope on Mount Hamilton.

Tonight you will view NGC 6826, the Blinking Planetary, a planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus.

Telescope Operators:

36-inch Great Refractor

Monique Windju | Keith Wandry

40-inch Reflector

Tanja Bode

40-inch Control Room

Connor Dickinson