Date:
September 16, 2010 - 19:00
The Longmont Astronomical Society will meet on Thursday, September 16th, at the IHop Resturaunt, 2040 Ken Pratt Blvd., Longmont, CO. A group of us will meet for dinner prior to the meeting at 6 pm at the resturaunt. The general meeting will begin at 7 pm. The general public is cordially invited to attend.
The speaker at the meeting will be Bill Tshumy. The title of his presentation is "Escape From Plato's Cave: The Milky Way and the Galactic Coordinate System".
"Most amateur astronomers can find their favorite objects in the night sky. However, when asked where those objects are located in and around the Galaxy, they are generally stumped. Bill's talk will explore why that is and help you to understand the 3-D nature of our galaxy and where our favorite objects really lie."
Bill has been active in amateur astronomy for over 25 years. He has recently moved to Longmont, CO from Austin, TX where he had made his home for the past 16 years. Bill was heavily involved in the Austin Astronomical Society during that time. Public star parties are a favorite of his and he loves to share his knowledge of the sky with others.
Although all his formal training is in Zoology, Bill currently makes his living in Austin as a software engineer. In 2006 he founded Think Astronomy to help promote amateur astronomy in the Austin area. He gave monthly talks and star parties at various locations around Austin. Bill has written "Where is M13?" a free software application that shows you the 3-D locations and physical properties of deep sky objects in and around our Galaxy. He has also worked with Carina Software to coauthor their popular iPhone apps SkyVoyager and SkyGazer.
