Monthly Meeting | NoCoAstro

Our monthly meeting will be held on Thursday, May 1st at the Fort Collins Museum Of Discover in the Otterbox Dome Theater. The meeting officially starts at 6:15pm but feel free to show up early for social time. We will have refreshments and snacks available at 5:45pm. Afterwards at 8:00pm members are invited to dinner at Penrose Taphouse & Eatery. Contact Greg Halac if you are interested. Reservations are limited.

Michael Carroll, Author & Illustrator - The Earth - Past, Present and Future

Synopsis: The Earth is a planet in flux. It is not the world it was, and it is not the world it will be. Over the course of its ~4.5 billion-year history, Earth has resembled other planets in our solar system, alien worlds that give us insight into the Earth’s formation, its nature over time, and what our world may face in the future. So tonight we'll explore the Earths of the past, comparing them to the planets around us today. We'll cover "snowball" Earth epochs, planetary formation, the bizarre Hadean era and other highlights of our own planet's dynamic history.

Bio:

Journalist, lecturer and space artist Michael Carroll has over thirty books in print. His most recent non fiction book is Planet Earth, Past and Present (Springer), and his fourth science fiction novel is Plato’s Labyrinth: Dinosaurs, Ancient Greeks and Time Travel. Carroll is a Fellow and founding member of the International Association for the Astronomical Arts. He has explored Antarctica’s active volcano, Mt Erebus, to study analogs of ice moons there. One of his original paintings is on the surface of Mars—in digital form—aboard the Phoenix spacecraft. He voluntarily eats orange marshmallow circus peanuts.

Note: Michael will have small original art and prints, along with books for sale after the meeting. http://carrollspaceart.com/

Monthly Meeting General Info

Regular club meetings are currently held at the Otterbox Digital Dome Theater in the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, and are scheduled for the 1st Thursday of every month. Please verify the meeting date and location on the calendar and find out what we have planned. The business portion of the meeting is scheduled for 15 minutes starting at 6:15pm although members often show up early at 5:45pm for social time ... and snacks. :-) Regular topics include:

Announcements on upcoming NCAS events: speakers, stargazing, outreaching, etc.
Brief updates from the club president, treasurer and outreach coordinator.
Items of general interest as shared by members and visitors.

After the business meeting, speakers present an astronomy-related program beginning at 6:30pm. It is free of charge and the public is welcome. Talks are typically geared towards people with a high-school science background but the level does vary. Feel free to contact a club officer for guidance if the target level is not apparent from the talk description. Talks typically last for 45 minutes. Questions are usually welcome both during and after the talk.

NoCoAstro invites speakers to be our guest for dinner immediately after the club meeting. Dinner details are sent to the “club-news” email list shortly before the meeting. Dinner provides a great opportunity to welcome and get to know our speaker. Typically ~10 club members usually attend.

NoCoAstro greatly appreciates the members and experts in the Northern Colorado region who have taken the time to share their knowledge with the public and the club.