We have an absolute monster of a program for our February GAAC meeting to begin the new GAAC year.
Many of those wonderful pictures of objects in space -- galaxies spinning, black holes feeding, stars being born and dying, planets moving around other stars, and so many others, are taken by a fleet of space telescopes.
We've all heard of the Hubble, but we actually have different space telescopes to observe different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum -- light -- from Gamma rays through our rainbow to the Infrared.
Why are the different space telescopes used and what do we learn from them? What do the different pictures look like? What is the future of space telescopes? We have the answers for you.
On Friday, February 13, North Shore Amateur Astronomy Club president and long-time GAACster Kevin Hocker will show us examples of different space telescopes that do different jobs, and, of course, we'll see some of their amazing discoveries.
The space telescopes we will hear about include:
- Swift Gamma Ray Burst Telescope
- Chandra X-Ray Observatory
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Kepler - the telescope in the hunt for Earth like planets
- Spitzer Infrared observatory
- And of course, the Future of space telescopes - James Webb Space Telescope
Kevin will show us an overview of each telescope, its features, and of course a striking and colorful assortment of their discoveries. Don't miss this one! You'll be telling your friends all about this for weeks!