November Meeting

SKYSCRAPERS NOVEMBER MEETING
In-person and via Zoom

Meeting & Speaker
Saturday, November 2, 2024, 6PM
at Seagrave Memorial Observatory
Stephen LaFlamme
Adventures with Space Junk 
 
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89448512532?pwd=pxzULFEuQSKmrC2DtD2Izg7En7hokB.1 
Meeting ID: 894 4851 2532
Passcode: 852540
 

Stephen LaFlamme

Stephen LaFlamme has been a die-hard amateur astronomer since his “discovery” of Venus during the summer of ’78.  After years of visual observing and note-taking, Stephen converted over to the electronic eye of CCD astronomy about twenty years ago.  Astrophotography is a very frustrating and challenging endeavor, but the rewards eventually outweigh the hair loss.  Some hobby highlights include a backyard observatory, two total solar eclipse ventures, study of Halley’s Comet, locating a previously undocumented ‘moving star’, viewing of comet impacts on Jupiter, Astronomer of the Year for 2022, and a mountain of astrophotographs.

Abstract

As we move forward into the 21st century, it has become a fact of life that technology is everywhere.  This is very evident as we can testify to the influx of satellites and other space junk traversing our nighttime sky.  This project started out as a gimmicky attempt to image the floating toolbag that was inadvertently released by a NASA astronaut.  But it led to some eye-opening photos that offer us a glimpse of some of the silver birds that orbit the earth.  Many surprises were uncovered as this dive into tracking satellites took some unexpected twists and turns, literally!!  This presentation will enlighten you about some of the man-made objects lurking in the darkness of space.  And this field will only grow larger in the future.