Astronomers Association's Lecture Series Resumes

Editor's Note: The following news release was issued by the Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton.

The Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton is pleased to announce that our monthly lectures will resume on Sept. 11, 2012, at 8 p.m. in Peyton Hall with a lecture from AAAP’s friend, Professor David N. Spergel, entitled “Illuminating the Evolution of the Universe with the Cosmic Microwave Background.”  

The lecture will begin at 8:00pm in Peyton Hall, 4 Ivy Lane on the Princeton University Campus.  Admission is free and the public is welcome.  Ample free parking is available across the street from Peyton Hall.

Prof. Spergel, a MacArthur fellow and a member of the Academy of Sciences, is well known as one of the original co- investigators for Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe.  In 2010, he shared the prestigious 2010 Shaw Prize in astronomy with Charles L. Bennett and Lyman A. Page, Jr. “for their contributions to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe experiment, which helps to determine the geometry, age and composition of the universe.”  

Also, two papers that he co-authored on the microwave background are the two most cited papers in science over the past decade according to the website Incites.  This lecture by one of the superstars of theoretical astrophysics on recent developments in our understanding of the universe should be fascinating.

Future lectures will be on the second Tuesday of each month: September 11, October 9, December 11, January 8, February 12, March 12, April 9 and May14. Speakers and topics will be announced when confirmed.

In November, AAAP will be celebrating our 50th anniversary with a dinner in lieu of our regular meeting.

Every Friday from April to October, AAAP hosts public observing at our observatory in Washington-Crossing State Park, Titusville, NJ every Friday night from 8:00 to 11:00 pm, weather permitting.  The remaining dates for 2012 are September 7, 14, 21, 28, October 5, 12, 19 and 26.  More information including directions is on AAAP’s website: www.princetonastronomy.org.