Issue 15-34, August 17, 2015
+————————————–CONTENTS————————————–+
- MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR: PUBLIC EDUCATION AND OUTREACH:
MORE OF WHAT YOU CAN DO - ABSTRACT DEADLINE FOR 47th DPS MEETING IN NATIONAL HARBOR
- HARTMANN TRAVEL GRANTS FOR 47th DPS MEETING
- SPITZER CYCLE-12 PROPOSAL SUBMISSION OPEN
+——————————————————————————————–+
1———1———1———1———1———1———1———1———1———1
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR:
Public Education and Outreach: More of what you can do
When Bonnie Meinke, the Education Officer, and I solicited DPS member to write about what
they were going for outreach, we were pleased to get a number of good suggestions, which are
summarized below. Please keep your suggestions coming – we will share them in future
newsletters and workshops.
Michael Shepard, Bloomsburg State College (Penna.)
I live in an area with a fairly popular local newspaper. Some years ago I volunteered to write a
science column. It addresses many science topics, but since I’m a planetary scientist, that field
gets disproportionate coverage. The column is called the “Curious Professor” and the paper is
the Press Enterprise (pressenterpriseonline.com). The first year I did a column (700 words with
1-3 illustrations) every week, but now it’s every other week on Tuesdays. ******************************************************************************
Richard Schmude, Jr., Professor, Gordon State (Georgia)
One event that I have found successful has been to set up the telescope for trick or treat children.
In Barnesville, Georgia, there is one street when the children gather on Halloween. I have had
up to 500 people look through my telescope at the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and other objects.
I first started doing this at Los Alamos in 1990. Since then I believe that over 5000 people have
looked through my telescope at various celestial objects. I believe that Venus will be well placed
on Halloween 2015.
*****************************************************************************
Dr. Al Grauer, Catalina Sky Survey, University of Arizona
I started producing 2min pieces on my MAC and putting the pieces on PRX:
http://www.prx.org/series/33698-travelers-in-the-night
where PRX radio stations can pick them up for free. Radio stations are a tough nut to crack.
Last January I started putting pieces on the podcasting site:
http://www.spreaker.com/show/travelers-in-the-night
Today it has more than 9,200 plays and more than 2,100 followers.
I also started putting pieces on iTunes. This site has hundreds of thousands of
podcast shows so unless a bunch of people send in ratings and or reviews
the show is hard to find. People love what we are doing as DPS members.
*****************************************************************************
Andrew Fraknoi, Foothill College
“The Top Tourist Sights of the Solar System:
Where Bill Gates’ Great-Granddaughter Will Go for Her Honeymoon”
A free illustrated talk by astronomer Andrew Fraknoi (Foothill College)
Saturday evening, June 20, 2015, at 8:30 pm.
Cushing Memorial Amphitheater on Mt. Tamalpais
3801 Panoramic Hwy, Mill Valley, CA 94941
Using spectacular images from space probes and the world’s largest telescopes, we will
explore the most intriguing future “tourist destinations” among the planets and moons in
our cosmic neighborhood. After the lecture, there will be a laser-guided tour of the night
sky by Paul Salazar and stargazing through the telescopes of the San Francisco
Amateur Astronomers.
Bonnie Buratti
DPS Chair
2———2———2———2———2———2———2———2———2———2
ABSTRACT DEADLINE FOR THE 47TH DPS MEETING IN NATIONAL HARBOR
National Harbor, MD, 8-13 November 2015 at the Gaylord National Harbor
DPS members you are invited to attend the 47th Annual DPS meeting!
* Important dates
25 August 2015: Regular Abstract deadline, coming up quickly!
See http://aas.org/meetings/dps47/abstracts
Other important dates:
24 August 2015 DPS 47 Exhibitor Deadline
http://aas.org/dps-47th-meeting/47th-dps-meeting-exhibiting-sponsorship-opportunities
1 September 2015 DPS 47 Early Registration Deadline
http://aas.org/meetings/dps47/registration
8 September 2015 DPS 47 Regular Registration Deadline
http://aas.org/meetings/dps47/registration
And also:
– 24 September 2015: 47th DPS Late Abstract Submission Deadline – 9:00pm ET
– 8 October 2015: 47th DPS Hotel Reservations Deadline
3———3———3———3———3———3———3———3———3———3
HARTMANN TRAVEL GRANTS FOR 47TH DPS MEETING
A generous contribution from William K. Hartmann, supplemented by member contributions
and matching funds from the DPS Committee, has enabled a limited number of student travel
grants to assist participation by early-career scientists at the annual DPS meeting.
Application details are at meetings/travel_grant_application.
Travel grants are primarily intended for students, but post-doctoral scientists without other
means of support will also be considered.
The due date for applications is August 28, 2015 11:59 PM.
The DPS Leadership is also soliciting additional contributions from members for the Hartmann
Fund. Your tax-deductible gift promotes the careers of our next generation of planetary scientists.
Thanks so much for your generosity.
4———4———4———4———4———4———4———4———4———4
SPITZER CYCLE-12 PROPOSAL SUBMISSION OPEN
The SSC is now accepting Cycle-12 proposals.
Proposal Deadline: 11 September 2015, 4:00 PM PDT
All proposals must be submitted electronically using Spot, the SSC proposal planning and
submission software. Spot works with Java versions 1.6 and 1.7. Mac, Solaris and Windows
Spot/Leopard V19 are packaged with Java 1.6. However Linux Spot V19 was auto-updated
to Java 1.8. If you are currently using Spot for Linux you need to reinstall Spot, which will
auto-update with the correct version of JAVA, or you can download a script from
http://ssc.spitzer.caltech.edu/warmmission/propkit/spot/jre/installJRE
and run it to replace Java 1.8 with Java 1.7.
The Complete Cycle-12 announcement is below:
On behalf of NASA and the Spitzer Space Telescope Project, the Spitzer Science Center (SSC)
at Caltech is pleased to announce the release of the Cycle-12 Call for Proposals (CP). Both the
NASA Astrophysics and the Planetary Science Divisions are providing support for Spitzer operations.
The Cycle-12 CP solicits ~1,000 hours of General Observer (GO) and Snapshot proposals.
Innovative investigations with scientific high risk/gain are particularly encouraged. The Director
plans to select up to 250 hours of high risk/gain programs.
The maximum proposal size for Cycle-12 is 100 hours and Cycle-12 programs will execute in
the December 2015 – September 2016 timeframe.
Priority in the selection of Cycle-12 will be given to programs that highlight:
— Astro2010 science themes
— Planetary science programs observing targets in our Solar System.
— Investigations that concentrate on developing the scientific landscape that JWST will explore,
or will help maximize the JWST scientific return.
All programmatic and technical information for Cycle-12 is available electronically from the
Proposal Kit section of the Spitzer Science Center website at
http://ssc.spitzer.caltech.edu/warmmission/propkit/
The required Cycle-12 proposal templates are available now at theProposal Kit website.
Joint HST or Chandra observations can be proposed as part of a Spitzer Cycle-12 proposal.
Any questions should be addressed to the Spitzer Helpdesk at [email protected]
———————————+
Send submissions to:
Anne Verbiscer, DPS Secretary ([email protected])
To unsubscribe visit http://aas.org/unsubscribe or email [email protected].
To change your address email [email protected].
—
Anne J. Verbiscer
Research Associate Professor
Department of Astronomy
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4325