Where We Normally would Meet:
17540 Avenue Of The Arts, Surprise, Arizona (Unitarian Universalist Church)
(WVAC is not affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Church)
We meet nine times a year from September to May
General Meetings are held the first Tuesday of the month unless indicated (*)
2021: May 4th, Sept 7th, Oct 5th, Nov 4th, Dec 7th
2022: Jan 4th, Feb 1st, Mar 1st, April 5th, May 3rd.
We offer a Members only December Holiday Party and May Picnic
All meetings will begin at 7:00pm Arizona time unless otherwise indicated.
Our meetings feature great Guest Speakers – including staff astronomers from Arizona Observatories or professional astronomers from Arizona universities.
Not a paid member? We welcome all visitors. If you enjoy the program we ask that you show your appreciation by contributing to our Donation Scope or joining the club.
Future Meetings
February 1st 2022Presenter: Dr. Drew G. Keppel
Presentation: LIGO: Design and Destiny
Drew will give a brief overview of LIGO, discussing its design and purpose as well as exploring how it has contributed and will continue to contribute to our astronomical understanding of the universe
Format: Dr. Keppel will present in person with ZOOM to our remote attendees.
Drew spent eight years working as part of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), where his work developing algorithms to detect gravitational wave signals from binary black holes and neutron stars contributed to the first and subsequent detections of gravitational waves.
He holds a Ph.D. in gravitational wave physics from Caltech and, as a member of the LSC, was a co-recipient of the 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
Drew currently works as a Senior Staff Firmware Systems Architect at Synaptics, Inc. and nerds out by reading science articles in his spare time.
March 1st 2022
Presentation by Dr. Thomas Beatty. Dr Beatty is an Assistant Research Professor at the Steward Observatory University of Arizona.
Dr. Beatty will speak on Exoplanets.
Additional details will be coming soon.
April 5th 2022
Presenter: Dr. Hannes Bernhardt
Presentation: A Song of Ice and Fire: What Happened on Mars’ Oldest Large Volcanic Province.
Format: Dr. Bernhardt will present via ZOOM.
Dr. Bernhardt is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at ASU. Dr. Bernhardt is a now a Postdoc at the Ronald Greeley Center for Solar System Studies at SESE/ASU, Hannes Bernhardt did his PhD in Muenster, Germany on the geomorphology of Hellas Planitia, Mars.
May 3rd 2022 WVAC Picnic Details will be coming soon.
Typical meeting agendas are as follows:
- Coffee and Cookies Available
- Opening Welcome and Remarks
- Guest Speaker presentation with Q&A
-
Announcements
- Door Prize and 50/50 Raffle
- Club Workshop (if time permits)
- Closing Remarks
Or you can view details of our previous meetings.