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Next open house coming soon

We have not yet chosen a firm date for our next Physics/Astronomy open house event for the Emory community. We intend to have at least one fall event and one spring event, and the specifics are advertised here four or five weeks prior to the event. During the spring 2009 event we added *demonstrations of physics and astronomy phenomena* (live link), and some of these festivities can serve as a preview of our future events.

Emory Astronomer discovers second pulsating variable star

From Emory eScienceCommons article - 10/29/09

"...Emory astronomer Horace Dale identified the star's classification last week, during an exercise of the advanced astronomy lab he teaches, and it was officially entered into the Variable Star Index on Oct. 22.

A variable star is one that changes its luminosity over short periods of time. In layman's terms: It twinkles. And we're talking a true twinkle, as opposed to the false twinkle-effect that the Earth's atmosphere gives stars. When the first variable star was identified in 1638, it disproved theories by Aristotle and others that the stars were eternally the same and fueled the astronomical revolution sparked by Galileo's telescope in 1609.

A Delta Scuti pulsating variable is an older star with gases that are rapidly expanding and contracting in both spherical and oblong shapes. Out of the 200 billion stars in our galaxy, only about 400 are known Delta Scuti. Dale is credited with identifying two of them, including another one in the Cassiopeia constellation that entered the index in 2007.

"Not many people are looking for them," Dale says, explaining that it's painstaking work to identify one. Changes in luminosity must be measured over time to produce a light curve, such as the graph, above, from Dale's most recent find."

Special thanks to Carol Clark, writer for the eScienceCommons project and author of the original article.

IYA celebration at Emory


During spring 2009 we enjoyed another very nice evening during our Physics/Astronomy open house for the Emory community. The skies were mostly clear and we were able to share live, telescopic views of the Moon and Saturn as well as the great Orion Nebula with those who attended. Views from the observatory were also available via a live feed into the planetarium, and most stopped by the planetarium on their way to the observatory for a detailed explanation and description of the close-circuited image. As usual the Emory astronomy club provided very popular and very tasty homemade baked goods. A newly added feature and one of the most welcomed highlights of this event was the series of physics and astronomy demonstrations provided by Jason Boss and a team of Emory graduate and undergraduate students. In case you were unable to attend, here's a little bit of what you missed (click here)!

Many thanks for your interest in the Physics/Astronomy program at Emory University,
Richard Williamon

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