E&E Announcements

2 November 2024: On 15 November Saturn will end its retrograde motion, halting its westward movement through the constellations and returning to its usual eastward motion. This reversal of direction is a phenomenon that all of the Solar System’s outer planets periodically undergo and is caused by Earth’s own motion around the Sun. As Earth orbits the Sun our perspective changes, causing the apparent movement of objects across the celestial sphere to switch directions following regular periods, depending on how fast they orbit the Sun. Saturn enters retrograde motion approximately once each year, typically lasting about 4.5 months. The Leonids meteor shower will be active 6–30 November, producing its peak rate of meteors around 17 November. The majority of meteors will appear to originate from the shower’s radiant point in the constellation Leo. However, shooting stars can be seen across the entirety of the night sky due to the various angles at which …

2 November 2024: Professional Development Opportunities NOIRLab Sessions at the NSTA National Conference Generating classroom lessons from NSF-funded facility resourcesThursday 7 November • 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. CDTNew Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center – 294 Exploring the Cosmos with NOIRLab and LLPADFriday 8 November • 1:20 p.m. – 2:20 p.m. CDTNew Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center – 281 Hunting For Brown Dwarfs With NSF NOIRLabSaturday 9 November • 10:20 a.m. – 11:20 a.m. CDTNew Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center – 398 15 and 16 November, Capacitaciones de Educación del Observatorio Vera C. Rubin Time: 15 November 5:15 p.m. – 8:15 p.m. CLST and 16 November 9:30 a.m. –12:30 p.m. CLSTLocation: Universidad de Tarapacá, Campus Saucache, Arica, ChileDescription: The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, will offer a training session for high school teachers. In this session, we will present the educational activities developed at the observatory, focusing on the investigation "Coloring …

2 November 2024: Join the hunt for exoasteroids by bringing a new citizen science opportunity into your classroom! Exoasteroids is a citizen science project designed to help astronomers discover debris disks and asteroids around white dwarfs. These disks are great environments for studying how planetary systems form and end. This project would fit well into teaching units such as Solar System formation and stellar evolution. Students will analyze data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope to identify changes in the brightness of white dwarfs, providing a glimpse into our own Solar System’s fate! See the full announcement here.

2 November 2024: Project ASTRO is a long-running project at NOIRLab that brings together classroom teachers and astronomers to collaborate on astronomy education in the classroom. The Project ASTRO fall workshop was held at Kitt Peak National Observatory on 12 October 2024. The all-day workshop consisted of hands-on activities, telescope tours, and evening observing. Teachers worked with astronomers to learn how astronomers analyze light, the phases of the Moon, and the science of comets — appropriate as Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS was a pleasing sight after sunset. Participants toured the Nicolas U. Mayall 4-meter telescope and the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope. Workshop attendees also saw a Science On a Sphere show. Teachers left the workshop with a plethora of educational resources and a network of astronomers to visit their classrooms, lead activities, and talk about science careers and other roles agreed on by the teachers and astronomers. Information and applications for the 2025 Project ASTRO workshop …

2 November 2024: In celebration of its fifth anniversary, NSF NOIRLab recently released a dazzling new image of the Rosette Nebula, taken with the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. Part of what makes the image so striking are the contrasting colors swirling in ethereal layers around the nebula’s center. So it may surprise you to learn that the raw data from the camera hold no information about the light’s colors at all. In fact, all the camera captures is light intensity. “Each pixel in the camera is like a little solar panel,” explains Travis Rector, an astronomer and image processing specialist who leads the production of many NOIRLab images. “The pixel just knows how much light is hitting it, and the more light that hits it the …

2 November 2024: Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is pleased to announce the launch of a variety of field trip programs for K–12 school groups, homeschool groups, and other education groups. This unique experience will give your students an opportunity to see first-hand the cutting-edge science and engineering of a national observatory! All field trips are tailored by grade level and include a visit to the Windows on the Universe Center at the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope. During the field trip, students will learn about the Tohono O’odham Nation, explore the Sun through exhibits and a Science on a Sphere show, and participate in a hands-on astronomy activity. Visit our webpage to find more information about the KPNO field trips and to request a trip for your school. See the full announcement here.

2 November 2024: Stellar Safari is Rubin Observatory’s newest investigation, released in August. Students explore stars in their wild and natural environments to compare and understand their properties, and determine the distances to the star clusters in which they reside. We are collecting feedback from both students and teachers on this investigation. Check it out and let us know what you think!An Educators’ Roundtable was held in October to solicit ideas and discussion about what resources and activities would be helpful for educators introducing Rubin First Look materials to students. This is the first in a series of Zoom meetings for educators to build momentum and engagement. Want to get involved? Email education@lsst.org. Alan Strauss, Head of Rubin EPO delivered the astrophysics plenary at the 2024 Congreso Nacional de Física meeting in Chihuahua, Mexico. His talk was titled Rubin Observatory — Bringing the Sky to Life, which presented a broad overview of the …

2 November 2024: Welcome to this inaugural issue of the NOIRLab Education & Engagement Newsletter. If you are interested in K–12 education, STEM activities supporting the Next Generation Science Standards, Indigenous engagement, the Community-based Science Model, informal education, outreach and everything in between. This newsletter is for you, if not, you can unsubscribe at the bottom of this email. Our focus here is mostly on education, engagement and outreach related to our amazing Programs — Vera C. Rubin Observatory, International Gemini Observatory, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO). This month the excitement is great as Rubin Observatory just completed its first end-to-end test. In other words, the telescope and its advanced data systems are working. The next several months will be spent on tweaking the software and hardware to perfection. Yours in lifelong learning, Justine Schaen Justine SchaenEditoreducation@noirlab.edu