Dr. Gibor Basri is a world-renowned expert
on the subject of brown dwarfs, and a co-investigator on the upcoming
Kepler mission to detect transits by
terrestrial planets around other stars. He has served on committees to award
major NASA and NSF grands and projects, and awarding time on the Keck telescopes.
William Borucki Virginia Gulick Jane Houston Jones Don Parker Cynthia Phillips
Solar system and planetary science panel
Wednesday, July 21, 10:15 a.m.
Don Machholz
AstroCon 2004 Lunch speaker
Wednesday, July 21, Noon
Don Machholz is an amateur astronomer living in Colfax, CA. From there he
continues his visual comet hunting program, hosts public star parties
throughout
the area, and conducts Messier Marathons, of which he has done thirty and
about which he has written two books. His Wednesday lunchtime talk will be a
short course on the Messier Marathon and he promises to provide the dessert!
Michael Bakich
AstroCon 2004 Lunch speaker
Thursday, July 21, Noon
Michael Bakich is an associate editor at Astronomy Magazine. In his
talk, The Other Side of Amateur Astronomy, Michael will examine
the various phases of amateur astronomy as a hobby, leading to the most
difficult and wondrous of all: evangelist. What can we, as dedicated
amateur astronomers, do to promote our hobby? How can we strongly
encourage a love for things celestial and gently discourage the use of
wasteful light? He will propose and solicit ideas.
David Levy
AstroCon 2004 Lunch speaker
Friday, July 23, Noon
David Levy has discovered 21 comets, eight with a
telescope in his backyard observatory, and 13 which he
shared with Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker. One of these
comets, Shoemaker-Levy 9, collided with Jupiter in the
summer of 1994, resulting in the greatest explosion ever
witnessed on another world.
Dr. Louis Friedman
AstroCon 2004 speaker
Friday, July 23, 1:30 p.m.
Dr. Louis D. Friedman is the author of Starsailing: Solar Sails and Interstellar Travel.
Dr. Friedman worked on deep space missions at JPL from 1970-1980, including design studies for
the Halley Comet Rendezvous-Solar Sail. He is the author of more than twenty papers on navigation,
mission analysis and design, and mission planning. Dr. Friedman co-founded The Planetary Society
in 1980 with Carl Sagan and Bruce Murray. He has been part of the technical team working on Mars
balloons and Mars rovers, and is the Project Director for Cosmos 1, the first solar sail
spacecraft.
Dr. Geoff Marcy
ASP Awards Banquet
Friday, July 21, 7:30 p.m.
Truly a "star-studded" event, the ASP's gala awards banquet for 2004
will be held on Friday, July 23, at the Doubletree Hotel, Berkeley
Marina. The banquet will begin with a no-host reception at 6:30 p.m.,
followed by dinner, presentation of the ASP's 2004 annual awards (to
be announced in spring 2004), and a very special talk by well-known
planet-hunter
Dr. Geoff Marcy,
who will share some personal
experiences, stories, and anecdotes collected during his team's long
and ultimately very successful search for planets orbiting other
stars. Between Dr. Marcy and the award winners this promises to be a
memorable evening!
ASP membership is not required for you to attend the banquet, and
non-members are definitely invited. Thanks to the generosity of the
other AstroCon 2004 co-sponsors and hosts, if you will be attending
only the ASP banquet and/or the ASP members meeting you are not
required to pay any AstroCon registration fees.
Tony Hallas
AstroCon 2004 Lunch speaker
Saturday, July 21, Noon
Tony and Daphne Hallas
have been active in astronomy
since 1986 and have been doing astrophotography since 1987.
Tony owned a large custom/commercial photo lab for many years
and sold it to concentrate on astrophotography full time.
Their astrophotography spans three major revolutions: purely
mechanical methods such as physically stacking negatives,
digitizing film and using digital enhancement techniques,
and pure digital photography using CCD cameras. They currently
image with a 14.5" f/8 classical cassegrain using an SBIG ST-10E
CCD camera.
Alan
Bean Closing banquet, USS Hornet
Saturday, July 21, 6:00 p.m.
Alan Bean, Apollo 12 lunar
module pilot, became the fourth man in history to set foot
on the moon. As commander of Skylab mission II, he lived 59
days in space, 270 miles above planet Earth. Under his
leadership, his crew accomplished 150% of their pre-mission
goals - a record unsurpassed before or since. During his
career, Alan helped establish 11 world records in
aeronautics and space.
Alan is also an accomplished
painter and author. Bring your copy of Apollo: An
Eyewitness Account for him to sign, and view his
incredible space art
If you would like to be considered for the list of invited speakers, please contact
Ilona Magyary at speakers@astrocon2004.org
