The Uptown Planetarium Lecture Series at the New York Public Library A NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassadors Program Event

November 7 and 14, 1:00 PM
We'll look at the astonishing results from the Cassini spacecraft's journey to Saturn. We'll see the pictures from the surface of Titan, and show you how photography is done in space going 20,000 miles per hour. We will see the findings of the Messenger mission to Mercury, and how it stays safe from the Sun as it gathers valuable new knowledge about this secretive planet. We'll see how the marvelous Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed with a bounce on Mars. We'll see how the Phoenix lander touched water ice and what it found while digging in the cold Martian soil. Leaving the cold reaches of Mars' North Pole, we'll revisit the New Horizons mission speeding to Pluto and finally take a look at the latest results from the LCROSS mission's data trying to find water on the Moon.

About The Lectures

As part of The International Year of Astronomy 2009, The Inwood Astronomy Project (IAP) is presenting twelve live Planetarium Show / Lectures at the New York Public Library, Inwood Branch. Supported by NASA's Solar System Ambassador Program, each planetarium show is a 90-minute space and sky slide show using Astronomy software with a digital projector. Each show will feature astonishing photos from the NASA's current space and planetary exploration missions and up-to-date research and ideas from Astronomy. It's a great way to learn Astronomy with a knowledgable NASA/JPL volunteer to answer all your questions. All shows are free, open to the public, and suitable for kids and families. There will also be free NASA handouts, posters and lithographs for everyone whon comes. All of the lectures will be at the New York Public Library, Inwood Branch in the downstairs auditorium, located at 4790 Broadway [near Dyckman St.], New York, NY 10034-4916. The library's phone number is 212-942-2445. It is right next to a car wash. To get there by train, take the "A" train to the Dyckman/200th Street stop. It is one block from the subway. You can also come by the "1" train, but the walk from the Dyckman Street stop over to Broadway is about 6 blocks.

March 7 and 14, 2009, 1:00 PM
One of the key questions of all Astronomy is about the question of life in the Universe. We'll talk about the search for evidence of life in our Solar System and why we have focused on Mars. We'll show the amazing results from NASA's Phoenix, Spirit, Opportunity, Pathfinder and Viking missions. We'll also talk about the extreme forms of life on Earth and the ongoing search for biochemistry in our Solar System. We'll also show off the hundreds of newly discovered nearby planetary systems, and how that has affected our perception of life .Out There.. We'll see how Life to arose on our planet, and how we could, possibly, one day, travel to the stars.

April 4 and 11, 2009, 1:00 PM
The Universe is really big, and by really big, I mean really really big. Bigger than anything you can imagine, and probably bigger than that too. We will take a journey in space, size and time from our Earth and show the vastness of our Solar System, our local starry neighborhood, the Milky Way, other galaxies, and finish up with the entire Universe. Along the way, we'll learn about how the Universe looked in its infancy, how amazingly it has changed through the eons, and what will happen in the distant future. We will show what we have found at every size scale in the Universe, and we'll even take a peek at the edge of our Cosmic Horizon with the findings from the WMAP and COBE telescopes up in orbit. As always, we describe the current state of the science from the point of view of current observations and experiments.

May 2 and 9, 2009, 1:00 PM
In the last few decades, the Human Race has ventured to the Moon, and sent spaceships to every planet in the Solar System. We'll talk about the amazing discoveries that have been found; from the water ice on Mars found by Phoenix, to the plumes of Enceladus and the glittering rings of Saturn seen by Cassini, to the hellish surface of Mercury now being explored by Messenger. We'll see the amazing discoveries of the Galileo orbiter at Jupiter, and see what it looks like on the surface of Venus. We'll take you on a tour of the most amazing places that we have sent ever sent spacecraft; all in our little library.

September 12 and 19, 2009, 1:00 PM
Our night sky looks peaceful, placid and wondrous, but scientists and astronomers have recently discovered jut how amazingly violent the Universe can be. The re are cataclysmic explosions and extreme environments beyond our imaginations. The Chandra X-Ray Telescope, The Hubble Space Telescope, and the Fermi Gamma Ray Telescope all give us pictures of the most violent places in the Cosmos. Come see what happens to stuff near a Black Hole. Learn how supernova explosion s create super-dense stars. And see beacons of light so bright that they can be seen literally across the entire Universe. Come join us for a safe view of th ese wild corners of the sky.

October 3 and 10, 2009, 1:00 PM
These two missions are capturing the imaginations of people all over the world. The Hubble Space Telescope was just newly refurbished with its last servicing mission. We will look at what it has learned about the Universe, how it probes of the deepest reaches of the cosmos, and how we interpret its myriad mysterious images. We will also look at the upcoming LCROSS Lunar Impact Mission, due to make a crater on the Moon in search of Water on October 9 of this year! With the return to deep space and the return to the Moon these two missions are shaping our understanding of the universe, and our little neck of the woods. We'll learn about the adventure of these two daring spacecraft, one with a 19 year history of problems and triumph, and one that has a one-way ticket to being a crater on the Moon. We will even take a peek at the next space telescope that will surpass Hubble: The James Webb Space Telescope.

November 7 and 14, 1:00 PM
We'll look at the astonishing results from the Cassini spacecraft's journey to Saturn. We'll see the pictures from the surface of Titan, and show you how photography is done in space going 20,000 miles per hour. We will see the findings of the Messenger mission to Mercury, and how it stays safe from the Sun as it gathers valuable new knowledge about this secretive planet. We'll see how the marvelous Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed with a bounce on Mars. We'll see how the Phoenix lander touched water ice and what it found while digging in the cold Martian soil. Leaving the cold reaches of Mars' North Pole, we'll revisit the New Horizons mission speeding to Pluto and finally take a look at the latest results from the LCROSS mission's data trying to find water on the Moon.

Come see what's up in the sky!

Jason Kendall
Director: Inwood Astronomy Project
NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador to New York City

The Inwood Astronomy Project is thankful for the support of the NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassadors Program, the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York, and the New York Public Library


We look up to look within