Join Boise State Physics in summer 2025 for our internationally-renowned First Friday Astronomy programs. They take place on the first Friday of every month at 7:30p MT in the Education Building (https://maps.boisestate.edu/?id=715#!m/89069), room 101 or online at boi.st/astrobroncoslive.
On August 21st 2017 a total solar eclipse crossed the USA from coast to coast. The Citizen CATE Experiment used a fleet of telescopes to observe the solar corona during this spectacular event. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIII0aOZ4UA.
Among different fields of science, astronomy has a unique history of citizen science projects. In the last few decades, the advent of user-friendly software and web infrastructure, as well as off-the-shelf research-grade instrumentation, has led to a golden age of citizen science astronomy. Opportunities for amateurs to contribute meaningfully to astronomical research have never been more plentiful.
May’s Northern Lights as seen from Boise State’s Observatory
An usually active Sun has given us some especially brilliant and visible Northern Lights in recent months. For Boise State Physics’ July 2024 First Friday Astronomy event, we’ll host Dr. Elizabeth Macdonald, director of NASA’s Aurorasaurus project. In preparation for that event, I’ve written this short primer on the science of the Northern Lights.
The advent of increasingly sophisticated, commercial-grade astronomical hardware and software is democratizing science in a profound way. Citizen scientists have helped find planets in other solar systems, classify galaxies, and spot supernovae. Closer to home, citizen scientists are helping unlock the mysteries of our own solar system through the science of occultations.
Artist’s conception of a hot Jupiter shedding mass.
Though worlds in our Solar System have been rocked by geological upheavals, mountain-shattering impacts, and climatic disasters throughout their histories, we think they have remained essentially intact. The planets we see today have been here since they first coalesced 4.5 billion years ago. But that long-lived stability may be the exception and not the rule. Indeed, astronomers now know many planets face destruction through what’s called tidal disruption, and recent searches have revealed direct evidence of the final moments for these doomed worlds.
Join Boise State Physics for our First Friday Astronomy lecture series in Spring 2024. Lectures take place on the first Friday of the month (EXCEPT in April of this year when it will take place on the second Friday) at 7:30p MT on-campus and via live-stream at boi.st/astrobroncoslive. Visit https://www.boisestate.edu/physics/seminars-and-events/ for more information.
For Boise State Physics’ First Friday Astronomy event in January, we will host Leif Edmondson, president of the Boise Astronomical Society. Edmondson will talk about ancient Babylonian astronomy, so for this month’s blog post, rather than steal his thunder, I decided to talk about an astronomical tradition disconnected from Babylon: ancient Korean astronomy.