Revised July 23, 2023
Current Speakers and Talks for AHSP 2023
We will be bringing back the featured speakers for Friday and Saturday evening onsite presentations this year. We look forward to using the new outside yurt to provide these featured talks and other hands-on activities during the day.
We will also have our pre-event virtual sessions as we believe they provide many additional benefits to attendees for planning and observing.
Invitations to the virtual sessions will be emailed to those who have registered for the star party.
2023 Full Schedule Draft (pdf ) and Electronic Calendar
Here is the AHSP 2023 YouTube Playlist!
There are three videos now from the presentations on July 23rd 2023. The individual videos, slides and additional documents referenced in each video are posted below as we get them from the speakers.
Sunday, July 23, 2023
Sunday, August 6, 2023
Paul Derby – Three Years with a Unistellar eVscope
Summary
Paul will go over his experience with the eVscope and what has happened in the landscape of the products in the last few years.
Biograph
Matt Penn – The Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast Initiative
Summary
Matt will be speaking on The Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast Inititive
Biograph
Matt Penn got interested in astronomy when his parents bought him a telescope while he was in third grade. He got a bachelor’s degree in astronomy from Caltech, and completed a senior research project at their Big Bear Solar Observatory. He was awarded a PhD in astronomy by the University of Hawaii, and did his dissertation research about oscillations in sunspot umbrae using the Mees Solar Observatory on Maui. In 26 years of solar physics research, Matt worked with students and published research using data from solar observatories in New Mexico, San Fernando CA, and most recently Kitt Peak near Tucson. To stay in Tucson with his family (including 5 grandkids) Matt resigned from his solar astronomer job in 2018 and now is an electro-optics engineer in the defense industry. He is currently an adjunct faculty with Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and enjoys working with excellent colleagues while pursuing his astronomy interest as an amateurs.
Ed Witkowski – Observing Star Clusters
Summary
Ed will be giving a talk on observing Open Star Clusters
Biograph
Cindy Krach – Sketching at the Telescope
Biograph
Cindy L. Krach, DVM is a retired animal surgeon and pet care practitioner, who observes and sketches deep-sky objects nightly from her driveway on Crater Road in Kula, Maui. Cindy coordinates the astronomical sketching program and an astronomy observing sketch award for the Astronomical League, where she also has earned many observing certificates of achievement.
She is an avid amateur astronomer and a member of Haleakala Amateur Astronomers. She has done public outreach for the University of Hawaii, Institute for Astronomy since 2010. In 2014, I created the Astronomical League Sketching Observing Program and act as coordinator. She is passionate about sketching astronomical objects but is not a formally trained artist, just have a whole lot of practice. Some of her sketches have appeared in Sky & Telescope Magazine and in 2022 a lunar sketch appeared on the magazine cover. She posts regularly on Cloudynights sketching forum.
She is currently building a truss telescope using basic hand tools for an 8” mirror that she ground and figured herself.
On Site Speakers at AHSP 2023
Duncan Lorimer
7:00 p.m. — Fast Radio Bursts
Summary
Duncan will be speaking to us on Fast Radio Bursts
Biograph
Duncan Lorimer, Professor, Associate Dean for Research at WVU
As an astronomer, Dr. Lorimer is interested in compact objects (black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs) which he studies using radio pulsars: rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron stars. He arrived at West Virginia University in May 2006 from the Jodrell Bank Pulsar Group where he worked as a Royal Society Research Fellow. Before that he was at Arecibo Observatory (1998-2001) and at the MPIfR in Bonn (1995-1998).
His research revolves around surveys for radio pulsars and what they tell us about the population of neutron stars. This work is carried out with many collaborators and uses some of the classic radio telescopes around the world. Of particular interest are young, energetic pulsars and binary systems where the orbiting companion is a white dwarf, a main sequence star, another neutron star, and (perhaps soon!) a stellar-mass black hole.
Terry Mann
Saturday 7:00 p.m. — Aurora
Summary
Terry will be speaking to us on Aurora
Biograph
Terry has traveled to many places to view celestial events, such as, Australia, to view the Southern Hemisphere, Aruba to view a total eclipse, and Bolivia as a speaker for the Southern Skies Star Party and to view the Southern Hemisphere. Some of her favorite places are here in the U.S.A.
Her photographs have been seen in local newspapers, television, magazines and websites such as, Sky and Telescope magazine , the Reflector magazine, Spaceweather.com, and Space.com. She has exhibited in art galleries and museums. She was selected as a First Light Observer at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and had three of her images placed in the Explore the Universe gallery. She has spoken at various star parties, organizations and events. She has held workshops at the Sally Ride Science Festivals at the University of Michigan.
She has served as Secretary, Vice President and President of the Astronomical League, an Organization of over 13,000 amateur astronomers. She has served as the amateur astronomer on the Board of Directors at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
Terry holds a Bachelor of Science Management degree. She has said, “I know I’ve had a good night when I have imaged the sunset and don’t pack the cameras up until after sunrise.”