Description:

CIERA Astronomer Evenings are special programs that take place on the last Friday of every month at Northwestern's Dearborn Observatory.

Look through the historic telescope and meet and talk with astronomers from CIERA, Northwestern's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics!

Each month, different experts will be available to answer your astronomy and astrophysics questions. These evenings begin with a 10-minute introduction to a topic in astronomy, followed by an open Q&A session and fun, interactive demonstrations.

The talks are free and open to all! No reservation needed.

THIS MONTH:

Through the telescope in the Dearborn Observatory you can see the optical light from the universe. This is light that you can see with your eye - what about the light at wavelengths that the human eye cannot see? How do we observe it? What can it tell us about the universe? Kerry Paterson will show you some of the other interesting telescopes across the globe (and in space) and talk about the interesting science that we do with them.      

Rocco Coppejans will briefly discuss dark matter (what it is and why we believe it exists) before talking about his work to design and construct a scintillating liquid argon bubble chamber, which will be used to search for WIMP dark matter.

Please note: The historic Dearborn Observatory building does not have an elevator. Several staircases must be climbed to reach the conference room and the telescope.