[sfevents] Three upcoming Astronomy events

[Michael Portuesi]

Event #1 - International Sidewalk Astronomy Night, Saturday April 12



April 12, 2008 will be the 2nd International Sidewalk Astronomy Night  
and we invite all amateur astronomers to join us!

On Saturday night located in several areas of SF, as well as several  
other cities throughout the Bay Area amateur astronomers will be  
hanging out on street corners, in parks, or other heavy traffic areas  
showing off the heavens.

In SF typical locations will include Land's End (at the City Star  
Party), possibly South of Market or Dolores Park, you never know where  
people might setup!

Event news and details can also be found at the ISAN website:

http://www.sidewalkastronomynight.com/




Event #2 - Yuri's Night 2008


http://bayarea.yurisnight.net/2008/

Sat. April 12, 2008

Yuri’s Night is a celebration of space exploration—and mankind’s  
curiosity, scientific ingenuity, technical achievements, and spirit of  
collaboration that have made it all possible. This year, NASA’s 50th  
anniversary, the Bay Area will be home to the largest Yuri’s Night  
celebration ever, with 8,000 people joining astronauts, artists,  
scientists, engineers, and musicians to pay tribute to our global  
space heritage and to celebrate how much more is out there to be  
discovered!

(Editor's note:  This is not a free event, tickets are $40 adults/$20  
children



Event #3 - SETI Lecture April 23rd


Nontechnical Public Lecture on
the Search for Signals from Extraterrestrial Civilizations
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On Wednesday, April 23rd, at 7 pm,
Astronomer Jill Tarter, of the SETI Institute, will
give a non-technical, illustrated talk on:
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The Allen Telescope Array: The Newest Pitchfork
for Exploring the Cosmic Haystack
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as part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures
in the Smithwick Theater, Foothill College,
El Monte Road and Freeway 280,
in Los Altos Hills, California.

Free and open to the public.
Parking on campus costs $2.

Call the series hot-line at 650-949-7888 for
more information and driving directions.

No background in science will be required for
this talk.  Seating is first come, first served.
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SETI -- the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence -- seeks
evidence of technologies from civilizations among the
stars to answer the age-old question "Are
we alone?"  The task is enormous --- it's often
likened to looking for a needle in a haystack.  Yet even
that metaphor doesn't begin to describe how much
searching may be needed to find our counterparts out
there -- the cosmic haystack is at least nine-dimensional!

Dr. Tarter is Director of the Center for SETI Research,
and the leader of the main project looking for radio signals
from alien civilizations (she was the model for the character
Jodi Foster played in the movie "Contact.")  She will update
us on the latest tools and plans in the SETI quest.

Digital technologies are making possible huge improvements
in our search systems.  The Allen Telescope Array, being
constructed in Northern California as a partnership between
the SETI Institute and the University of California Berkeley
Radio Astronomy Lab, will be the most powerful tool for
finding SETI signals ever built.  It is an innovative radio
telescope assembled from a large number of small dishes, using
consumer off-the-shelf technologies whenever possible to
minimize costs.  In the next decade, this new 'pitchfork' will
enable exploration of 1000 to 10,000 times more of the
cosmic haystack than was searched in the previous decade.
This may just be enough!

Dr. Tarter holds the Bernard Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI
Institute and is one of the best known astronomers in the world.
Although she is best known for her SETI work, she also
coined the term "brown dwarf" for an object that just misses
being a star.  In 2004, Time Magazine named her one of the
100 most influential people in the world.

Come early for this very special event in our series.

The lecture is co-sponsored by:
* NASA Ames Research Center
* The Foothill College Astronomy Program
* The SETI Institute
* The Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

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Past Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are now available
in MP3 format at:
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast/index.html