Cancelled: Observing the Sky: (Some) Astronomical Innovation From Then to Now, and Annual Dinner

To: Our Dear Members,
From: The Entire EAS Board of Directors

Your EAS Board of Directors has met to assess the risk that the coronavirus poses to the attendees of our Annual Awards dinner, their families, and to the greater community but much is unknown.

Official advisories are strongly recommending the cancellation of meetings like ours but it is not yet mandatory. After some deliberation, the board feels that it cannot adequately assure the safety of our members so we are informing you that the awards dinner is cancelled. Fees will be refunded.
Many organizations are making similar sacrifices for the good of their attendees and to meet their duty as good citizens. EAS could hardly do less.

There will be other nights and other dinners. We should all be proud to be part of an admirable organization like EAS, and the board thanks you for your continued support and confidence. We hope to reschedule this event for later this year.

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For more than 2000 years, innovative people have applied their ideas and insights into observing the universe. Unknown thousands of years ago, visual observers named sets of stars from the patterns they saw, sometimes using myths or animals, real or imagined, in their environments for the names. This became a convenience for astrologers and others talking about the sky. Planets were discovered and calendars were invented, and precession was discovered. Even computers and observatories were invented. More than a millennium ago, the first instruments for measuring star positions were invented. Used for surveying and navigation, improvements on these instruments and the developments of new ones led to new discoveries, especially when combined with new mathematical methods for calculation.

The invention of the telescope changed everything. Mountains and craters were visible on the Moon. Those moving points in the sky turned out not to be… worlds(?)! With moons! Telescopes and their mounts were improved, new inventions were adapted, and new methods of observation were applied to old and new problems by astronomers. The spectroscope, chemical photography, and the use of electricity and electronics literally opened up the universe to astronomers.

Speaker: Steve Edberg, NASA JPL, retired

See weblink for tickets.