Speaker: Dr. Steve Ruff – ASU School of Earth & Space Exploration. A planetary geologist with a focus on the mineralogy of Mars determined via infrared spectroscopy.

Topic: “Updates from the Surface of Mars”. Dr. Ruff discussed recent happenings at the surface of Mars concerning rovers and landers, and a look at the future of Mars exploration. Dr Ruff also reported on the final months of the Opportunity rover’s nearly 15 year mission; the recent activities of the Curiosity rover; the new Insight lander mission; and the upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission.

“New Horizon Mission Update”

Speaker – Dr. Will Grundy, Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ. Dr. Grundy is a co-investigator on NASA’s New Horizon Mission which did the Pluto fly-by and just arrived at Ultima Thule (dumbbell looking asteroid) in the Outer asteroid belt on New Years day 2019. Grundy does spectroscopic, thermal, and imaging observations of outer Solar System bodies using numerous large ground- and space-based telescopes including Hubble, Spitzer, Herschel, Keck, Gemini, VLT, DCT, IRTF, and MMT.

“Celestial (Stellar) Navigation” Speaker – Allen Edwards

Member/Speaker Allen Edwards spoke on the continuing use of stellar navigation as applied to Space Navigation – A variation on terrestrial celestial navigation was used to help orient the Apollo spacecraft en route to and from the Moon. To this day, space missions such as the Mars Exploration Rover use star trackers to determine the attitude of the spacecraft. Allen presented an INS unit and Sextant for show and tell experience. About the speaker – Club member Allen has a BSEE degree from Univ. of Illionois and a MBA from the Univ. ofPhoenix. He is president of the StellarNav LLC.

“Digital SLR Astrophotography” Speaker – Ryan Morrell

Speaker/member Ryan Morrell has collected state-of-the-art DSLR astronomy images from undisclosed desert viewing locations. Ryan resorted to unconventional means to obtain his astonishing photographs. Ryan showed his images as well as discussing his technique and equipment.

“Edited Netflix video clip (Edge of the Universe)”

Scientist now see back to just 1/2 million years after the Big Bang. We now have amazing updated concepts about it’s size , shape and ultimate fate.