Monthly Meeting | NoCoAstro

Our monthly meeting will be held on Thursday, May 7th 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.

Cepheids - Why the North Star Isn't Constant Afterall

Synopsis: In his play Julius Caesar, Shakespeare had Caesar utter the line “I am as constant as the Northern Star.” While poetic, this line isn’t remotely accurate by astronomy standards. Not only does the star that happens to be the “North Star” change over time, the star that is currently the North Star, Polaris, is a Cepheid variable star, a class of variable star that changes in brightness due to the star physically pulsating. Since their discovery in 1784, Cepheids have become one of the most important tools of astronomers, allowing Edwin Hubble to discover that the Universe is expanding, providing important clues about the internal structure of stars, and allowing a way to study the evolution of stars over short time periods. In this talk we will look at what causes Cepheids to pulsate and talk about their important role in modern astronomy.

Bio: Dr. Charles Kuehn is an Associate Professor of Astronomy and the Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Northern Colorado. He earned his B.S. in Astronomy from The Ohio State University and his PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Michigan State University before completing a postdoc at the University of Sydney in Australia. His research focus on the study of variable stars in an effort to understand stellar evolution, the formation of the Milky Way, and to determine the physical properties of stars that host exoplanets. He also engages in astronomy education research aimed to increase the accessibility of astronomy labs at the university level. He is passionate about outreach and runs a quarterly series of physics and astronomy talks at Loveland Aleworks.

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.