Events

On the evening of July 9th, as the intense heat of the summer sun on the National Mall faded into a cool breeze and sunlight gave way to a pale waxing gibbous moonlight, crowds quickly gathered at the National Air and Space Museum's public observatory for the 2nd annual Astronomy Night on the National Mall event.

DC area Astronomy Night on the National Mall changed to Saturday July 9, 6-11 PM due to weather!

For those of you in or around the Nation's Capitol this post-July 4th week, be sure to take note of a free event happening in the heart of DC. On July 8th, from 6pm to 11pm, there will be all sorts of astronomy activities - including star gazing if weather permits – on the National Mall between 4th and 7th Streets.

That's the tag line for this year's World Science Festival (WSF), currently ongoing throughout New York City. As with the previous incarnations, this year's WSF will culminate in a big science party in and around Washington Square Park on Sunday, June 5th. Once again, "From Earth to the Universe" (FETTU) will be there to help spread a little bit of the cosmos across the asphalt. FETTU can be found just to the southwest of the big fountain in the middle of the park (see the map). The good folks from NY Skies will be on hand to answer any questions you might have on the images. For those in the NYC area this weekend, try to stop by and enjoy the Big Apple's big show for science.

-Megan Watzke, CXC

This week, the American Astronomical Society held its bi-annual meeting in the fair city of Boston. Since those of us involved with Chandra spend most of our time on the other side of the river (meaning Cambridge), this is a chance to expand our horizons ever so slightly.

Of course, the big bonus of the AAS meeting is the ability to hear talks and mingle with people who don’t work at our institution. It’s a chance to catch up with old colleagues and meet new ones. In a world increasingly dominating by electronic communication, there’s something irreplaceable about actually sitting across from someone in person.

We are very excited to announce the launch of a new – and yet somewhat familiar -- project. Today, “From Earth to the Solar System” officially opens. As the name implies, FETTSS (our new favorite acronym) is a direct descendent of the “From Earth to the Universe” project.

Today is the first official day of the American Astronomical Society meeting here in Seattle (Twitter user? The hashtag is #aas217). Right now, scientists are announcing the first rocky planet found by NASA's Kepler mission. Later on, there will be a black hole press conference -- including Chandra data! -- and then news from Fermi on the gamma-ray sky. While this news is being announced, here is a little behind-the-scenes information on this process.

What constitutes 'fun' for astronomers? Well, besides getting new data and results, it might be *talking* about their new data and results. A lot of astronomers will get a chance to do this next week at the twice-annual American Astronomical Society meeting. This one is happening in Seattle, WA, where, in addition to rain, many new and exciting discoveries are expected. Chandra will have new stories coming out on Wednesday and Thursday so keep an eye open for those here. We'll be posting more information as we go, but in the meantime, here's an official announcement about next week's meeting:

This past weekend, the Chandra team had a great time at the USA Science & Engineering Festival. From nearly the start of the day on Saturday through the end of Sunday, there was a steady stream of people stopping by. Those who did attend had to deal with street closures from road races, as well the regular DC activity around the National Mall. Everyone was rewarded, however, with some fabulous autumn weather – sunny and dry.

We are live from the USA Science & Engineering Festival this weekend (October 23 and 24, 2010)! It's very cool to be in the heart of Washington, DC for this first national science fair.

If you felt a slight pull in the direction of our nation's capitol recently, it might have to do with a giant event that will culminate in veritable science-apoolza this weekend. This thing is something called the USA Science & Engineering Festival, and we're excited to be part of it here at Chandra.