The native American cryptography class just described is an OASIS class. We've also attended lectures on 10 immigration myths, on unsolved mysteries of archeology, and one on astronomy. They are all presented by top people in the field, so they are extremely well organized, illustrated, and presented. It's been a lot of fun!
Last night we went to Vesta Fiesta. It was put on by the Albuquerque Astronomical Society (TAAS) http://www.taas.org/newtaas/index.php and the Open Space Nature Center, which is run by the city of Albuquerque. http://www.cabq.gov/openspace/
The event celebrates the arrival of NASA's Dawn robotic explorer to Vesta, one of the largest asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It was once thought that these asteroids came from an exploded planet that was predicted to lie between Mars and Jupiter. However, it is now thought that the planet never formed and exploded. Instead, it never formed at all because Jupiter's huge gravity pull on the fragments kept perturbing the formation process that the other planets went through when our solar system was born. This understanding makes Vesta and the other large asteroid, Ceres, very interesting. Knowing more about these asteroids will further understanding about the early beginnings of our solar system, especially regarding the composition of the early materials that later made the planets. Until now, NASA scientists only had a very hazy image of Vesta, but Dawn, the robotic explorer, is already sending back pictures as defined and clear as those we have of our moon. Dawn just reached Vesta. It will orbit Vesta for one year and then leave Vesta's orbit and travel on to find Ceres and orbit it to collect data. You can read all about it at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/ceresvesta/index.html
Because the event was put on by TAAS (the Albuquerque Astronomical Society decided to include 'The' in it's acronym to avoid being the AAS society!) There were lots of telescopes and amateur astronomers to show you what to look at. Lee and I didn't stay for Vesta's rising, but we did see a binary star up close and personal. We intend to go the more TAAS events. We want to take advantage of Albuquerque's (usually) cloudless skies, but we will need to get away from the city lights to really see the deep sky. Meanwhile, Lee bought himself a lawn chair and sometimes I wake up at 5:00 am to find him missing from our bed and out in our courtyard, on his lawn chair, face to the stars, to discover whatever might be out there. This week the Perseid meteor shower will be visible in the early morning hours. The moon and city lights will obscure all but the brightest meteors, but we will look for what we can see.
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