Public OutreachNote to self:
If you can not talk about what you do to non-experts, you probably do not do it very well! If you are not excited to share the achievements of your field with others, get another job! NASA's Solar System Ambassador ProgramAs of January 2017, I am NASA's Solar System Ambassador (SSA) for the state of Wyoming. Please visit the SSA website and check out the upcoming events in your state. Inviting an ambassador to your school for after school program or a public talk on NASA's missions or any other space related activity, does not cost anything for the school as the SSA program is run by selected volunteers to serve each state.
WIRO Open HouseEvery year, on a chili Friday evening in October, faculties, staff, and students at the department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Wyoming get together to celebrate the long standing and continued operation of Wyoming Infra Red Observatory (WIRO) by showing it off to the public. It is my favorite event of the year when around a hundred [or more] residents of Wyoming take a trip up to the WIRO cathouse [picures below], enjoy some complementary snack/drink and dinner, get driven up to the observatory in small groups with university vehicles and degnated driverds, see the onservatory control room, inside the dome, the telescope itself [see some cool nebulae, star clusters or planets if the sky is clear] and learn about what projects are being done by the instruments and facilities at WIRO.
Contact the Physics & Astronomy department at the University of Wyoming to know about this annual event and sign up for a free trip to WIRO atop Jelm mountain this Fall! it is a lot of fun for all age groups. You do not need to be a student at UWyo to get to have this amazing experience.
Citizen CATE ExperimentAfter 38 years, on August 21st 2017 a total eclipse is going to be visible across the United States. The path of totality is elongated from Oregon to South Carolina on 12 states. NASA is planning on capturing the totality on 60 stations along the 2500 miles long path of totality. The assembled data from these CATE sites make for a total of 90 minutes movie of the solar corona for NASA's solar physics studies. Wyoming is on the path of totality and as a result 10 of the CATE sites are in this state. Science teachers who volunteered to help taking the data on the eclipse day are being trained in two workshops and are given the NASA sponsored equipment to keep after the eclipse for other events in their institution.
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