2024 Summer Series Public Events have been scheduled! Tickets go on sale on Wednesday April 17th at Noon!
Event Information

Tonight’s Host: Dr. Paul Lynam

7:30 pm Doors Open Brief Telescope Visits
8:30 pm Concert
9:30 pm Science Talk, Lecture Hall Telescope Viewings
10:30 pm Science Talk (repeated), Lecture Hall Telescope Viewings
1:00 am  Doors Close

This Evening’s Events

 

Concert

Tod Dickow with Charged Particles
Tod Dickow with Charged Particles

Charged Particles is very pleased to be joining saxophonist Tod Dickow to perform concerts celebrating one of the most important musicians in the history of jazz: Michael Brecker. Tod Dickow has worked with many top artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Harry Connick Jr., Steve Allen, Terry Gibbs, Frank Sinatra Jr., Dave Brubeck, and Maceo Parker.

The most exciting and creative music being made today crosses stylistic boundaries and blends diverse traditions to create engaging new sounds. Charged Particles features three of the country’s virtuosos doing just that in the electric jazz arena. Greg Sankovich is a keyboard wizard on the piano.  Aaron Germain is an inventive and sophisticated acoustic and electric bassist. Along with fiery drummer Jon Krosnick, these players are making some of the most electrifying jazz in the country today.The trio’s repertoire blends jazz with elements of Latin music, funk, classical music, and other genres. The group’s original compositions are mixtures of complex orchestration and elaborate improvised solos. The band brings a similar approach to playing arrangements of tunes by other jazz artists and traditional jazz standards by the composers of America’s most popular songs from decades ago, each played with a new twist. All of the trio’s music has a distinctly acoustic sensibility, despite the members playing both electric and acoustic instruments. The group’s small size allows for sensitivity and spontaneity among the players, making each performance an enchanting improvisational exploration. The band’s energy level is always high, even when they are cooking at a volume no louder than a whisper, or floating through the melody of a romantic ballad. Each piece they play brims with the fun the players have together and with the admiration they have for each other. Charged Particles are a treat to hear! Read more …

Science Lecture

(presented twice)

Dr. Steph Sallum
Dr. Steph Sallum

University of California, Irvine

“Imaging Planet Formation with Adaptive Optics”

Dr. Steph Sallum is an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UC Irvine.  She studies planet formation directly with high resolution imaging and interferometry. She develops and applies interferometric techniques on adaptive-optics corrected telescopes, and uses them to image young stars and protoplanetary disks. This approach allows her to probe smaller angular separations than “traditional” imaging techniques, expanding the parameter space for exoplanet and disk detections. She is also involved in exoplanet imaging instrument development as the Project Scientist for the Keck/SCALES integral field spectrograph, and as a member of the TMT/Planetary Systems Imager team.

Tonight’s Telescopes & Objects

36-inch Lick Refractor. Photo (c) Laurie Hatch.

Lick Observatory’s 36-inch Great Refractor saw “first light” in 1888. At the time, it was the largest refractor telescope in the world. It is an enduring memorial to James Lick’s philanthropy and his final resting place.

For nearly 300 years after Galileo first turned a telescope toward the heavens it was believed that the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, had just four moons. In 1892, using the Lick’s 36-inch Great Refractor, Edward Barnard discovered a fifth moon, the much fainter Amalthea, the last moon of any planet to be discovered without the aid of photography, electronic detectors or space-based telescopes.

The 36-inch telescope will show you an interesting astronomical object of the telescope operator’s choosing. This may be a globular cluster of stars, a binary star, or a galaxy.

Nickel 1-m Telescope. Photo (c) Laurie Hatch.

The Nickel 40-inch Reflector, named for philanthropist Anna Nickel, was designed and built in the Lick Observatory Technical Facilities at UC Santa Cruz and completed in 1979. The 40” diameter mirror of this modern telescope makes it the third most powerful telescope on Mount Hamilton.

Tonight you will view M11, the Wild Duck Cluster, an open cluster of stars in the constellation Scutum.

Telescope Operators:

36-inch Great Refractor

Keith Wandry | Rolf Weber

40-inch Reflector

Patrick Maloney

40-inch Control Room

Patricia Madison / Wendy Hansen

Telescopes will be available for viewing, weather conditions permitting, as soon as it is dark enough and will remain open until everyone has had an opportunity to see through both telescopes.

Share tonight’s experience on Social Media: #LickObservatory @LickObservatory

Additional Viewing Opportunities – Weather Permitting

Amateur astronomers have telescopes set up behind the main building. They will enjoy showing you other objects in the sky.

The Gift Shop is open tonight from 7:30 pm to 11:30 pm.

Refreshments

Snacks and beverages are available at the refreshment table in the main foyer. All proceeds help support the public programs. In the past, we have used proceeds to purchase an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), additional wooden benches in the main building, new speakers and amplifiers for the main building hallway, and partial funding of two spotting telescopes by the flag pole.

Dark Adjustment

Your experience at the telescopes will be better if your eyes have had an opportunity to adjust to the dark. For this reason, we try to keep the light levels low in both wings of the main hall.

Lights

Please refrain from use of flash photography or white light flashlights in the domes or adjoining hallway.

Assistance

We strive to make your visit as complete and meaningful as possible. Please let us know if you will need special assistance (for example, if you will have difficulty climbing stairs) by emailing tickets@ucolick.org, so we can make the necessary arrangements.

Our Volunteers

All of Lick Observatory’s public programs are greatly enhanced by the valuable participation of our many dedicated volunteers.

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