Speaker: Kevin Schindler Lowell Observatory’s
Topic: V.M. Slipher
Abstract: Vesto Melvin Slipher was an American astronomer who performed the
first measurements of radial velocities for galaxies. He was the first to discover
that distant galaxies are redshifted , thus providing the first empirical basis for the
expansion of the universe. He was also the first to relate these redshifts to
velocity . He spent the next 53 years of his life working at Lowell Observatory as
an assistant and then the director of the observatory until his retirement in 1954.
Slipher lived until age 93 and died in Flagstaff in 1969. He is buried at Citizens
Cemetery in Flagstaff.
Bio: Kevin Schindler is the Public Information Officer and Historian at the Lowell
Observatory. Kevin has recently completed an Astronomer in residency at the
Grand Canyon. Kevin is also an author and has written not only about the
Lowell Observatory and it accopmlishments but the history of Flagstaff and the
Grand Canyon. Kevin has presented to our club before.
New Room: Agave (down the hall from old location)
5:30 Astro Imaging Meeting
7:00 General Meeting