Tonight’s Host: Dr. Jon Rees

7:00 pm	Doors Open	Brief Telescope Visits
8:00 pm	Concert
9:00 pm	Science Talk, Lecture Hall	Telescope Viewings
10:00 pm	Science Talk (repeated), Lecture Hall	Telescope Viewings
12:30 am	Doors Close

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This Evening’s Events

Concert

Black Cedar Trio

The Black Cedar Trio has garnered praise from San Francisco Classical Voice, Performing Arts Monterey Bay, the San Francisco Examiner, and Classical Guitar Magazine for their wide breadth of styles and inventive delivery. They bring old music new life with their uncommon combination of wood flute, cello, and guitar. And, they create new music that delights the masses through collaborations between Black Cedar and up and coming composers from around the globe. With grant awards from InterMusic SF and the Zellerbach Family Foundation, plus a critically acclaimed album of commissions, these three musicians enter 2020 with music by Bach and Piazzolla, along with newer works by local composers and Klaus Hinrich Stahmer, a hidden gem from Germany. Their 5th Annual Local Composers in Public Libraries will travel to libraries in the South Bay, San Francisco, and Berkeley. And, their 7th Annual Chamber Music Outreach at the Arc of the East Bay continues to bring classical music to persons with developmental disabilities. www.blackcedartrio.com

A winner of the Carmel Chamber Music Society Competition, a second prize winner in the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition, and a Carnegie Hall Recital Debut winner with Artists International, Kris Palmer is a former member of the New Mexico Symphony, and she holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Rice University. As a nationwide guest lecturer on 18th Century Performance Practices, the New York Concert Review calls her “clearly among the few current performers on any instrument to fully understand the nature of French Baroque music.” www.krispalmer.com

Steven Lin is a winner of both the Boston GuitarFest Competition and the East Carolina University Guitar Competition. A recording artist for VGo Recordings, Steve has released two albums, Eliot Fisk Series Vol. 1, and Imagen. Classical Guitar magazine calls Lin “a confident player with a powerful sound, quick hands, and a solid musical memory.” Steve holds a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music and is the Professor of Guitar at San Jose State University. www.linguitar.com

Isaac Pastor-Chermak is Principal Cellist of Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony and Lake Tahoe Music Festival; Associate Principal Cellist of Stockton Symphony; Assistant Principal Cellist of Opera San Jose and Eisenstadt Classical Music Festival; and a member of Santa Barbara Symphony, Monterey Symphony, Santa Cruz Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Black Cedar Trio, and Ensemble 1828. Isaac earned a Bachelor of Arts, with honors, from U.C. Berkeley, and a Master of Music, with honors, from San Francisco Conservatory of Music. www.isaacpastorchermak.com

Science Lecture

(presented twice)

Dr. Charli Sakari

San Franciso State University

“Probing Heavy Element Formation in the Early Universe with Metal-Poor Stars in the Milky Way“

Dr. Charli Sakari is an Assistant Professor in the Physics & Astronomy Department at San Francisco State University. Originally from Springfield, OR, Dr. Sakari attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, graduating cum laude with a BA in Physics-Astronomy and Applied Mathematics, with honors in Physics-Astronomy. She then completed her PhD at the University of Victoria in Victoria, BC, Canada in 2014, where she was a Vanier Scholar. Her PhD thesis was entitled, “Chemical Abundances of Local Group Globular Clusters.” Dr. Sakari then completed her post-doctoral research at the University of Washington, in Seattle. Dr. Sakari’s research interests include chemical abundances of stars in globular clusters and galaxy field stars, including metal-poor stars. She is also interested in stellar evolution, nucleosynthesis (the creation of the elements), and galaxy formation and evolution.

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 NGC 7331, a galaxy in the constellation Pegasus.

Telescope Operators:

36-inch Great Refractor

Rick Baldridge | Keith Wandry

40-inch Reflector

Murali Balasubramaniam

40-inch Control Room

Patrick Maloney

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

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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 7:00 pm to 11:00 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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