Speaker: Bill Spizzirri. When we are at a dark sky area looking at the night sky, as beautiful as it may be, we are essentially seeing it only in 2D. Sure, the bright stars do seem a bit closer, but is that really the case?
Ancient Greek philosophers recognized the 2D appearance of the stars. In his model universe, Aristotle placed the stars on the inside of a crystal sphere a fixed distance from the Earth which they revolved around.
We now know much more about the universe than Aristotle ever would have imagined. Learning to measure cosmic distances was one of the keys that unlocked this knowledge and is one of the more remarkable achievements of modern astronomy.
Bill Spizzirri will take us on a journey of discovery as he describes how modern astronomers measure cosmic distances. He will touch on the history of discovery and describe some of the science behind the measurements.
Our Speaker: Bill Spizzirri is a retired computer software engineer who has been studying astronomy for over 65 years. His favorite thing to do is to teach astronomy to the public, especially children. He has been doing that more or less continuously for over 40 years. He now does it at Houston area schools and community centers. The pay is excellent, in the form of great questions from the students.
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This meeting will be held virtually via Zoom. To attend, you must register for the meeting. You can do so using the link below. You will receive an email with the details of the meeting and a link that will allow you to join in.
https://us02web.zoom.us/
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Join us Thursday, May 4th, 2023 at 7:00 pm CDST. See you then!
