Seeing, Transparency, and Light in the Night Sky

Twinkle, twinkle, little star...  Let’s face it, astronomers are at odds with poets and songwriters on this one. The quaint and often lovingly mentioned twinkling of stars in the night sky is very unhelpful  in astronomy, whether you are star-hopping to find that elusive binary or trying to image a bright nebula. Earth’s atmosphere is a complex mix of interacting fluid forces, responding constantly to a collection of forces from incoming solar radiation to features in the landscape. Whatever the causes, the result is turbulence. And whether reflected from the surface of a planet or directly from stars, light pasting through our turbulent atmosphere bounces around.

Meeting location:  

The meeting will be in class room 2 at the First Evangelical Lutheran Church located on the south side of Third Ave between Terry and Pratt.