Mt. Tamalpais State Park
Explore the Wonders of the Universe


2010 ASTRONOMY PROGRAMS
      our 22nd season on the Mountain

APRIL 17  8 pm  
EMMY NOETHER AND THE FABRIC OF REALITY
Noether’s Theorem ties the laws of nature – from Newton’s laws to thermodynamics to charge conservation – directly to the geometry of space and time, the very fabric of reality.   
Ransom W. Stephens, Ph.D. author of The God Patent
 
MAY 22   8:30 pm        
GALILEO, TELESCOPES AND THE BEGINNING OF MODERN SCIENCE
Review of the history of science and an exploration of the subtle, complex relationship between Galileo, telescopes, Science and the Church.
John Dillon, Randall Museum-San Francisco
           
JUNE 19    8:30pm     
WHY WE NEED TO COLONIZE SPACE
Everyone talks about colonizing space, but is it just a pipe dream?  If at least some of us aren't
off this planet within a half-century or so, our lifestyles are going to be less than commodious!
Dr. Seth Shostak, Seti Institute

JULY 17   8:30 pm        
DARK ENERGY AND THE RUNAWAY UNIVERSE
Observations of very distant exploding stars (supernovae) show that the expansion of the
Universe is now speeding up, rather than slowing down due to gravity as expected.
Dr. Alex Filippenko, University of California Berkeley

AUGUST 14    8:30 pm        
THE MANY MYSTERIES OF ANTIMATTER
How and when the imbalance of matter over antimatter developed is one of the great mysteries to unravel to understand the underlying properties of the universe.
Dr. Helen Quinn, SLAC-Stanford University

SEPTEMBER 11    8: 30pm            
THE GLOBE AT NIGHT: HOW AND WHY TO PRESERVE THE NIGHT SKY
Saving our Dark Skies is a Global Problem.   Find out how light pollution is measured and what you can do to understand and help preserve this natural resource locally.
Kenneth Frank, Astronomical Society of the Pacific-Dark Sky Network


OCTOBER 9  8 pm       
TERRAFORMING THE SECOND HOME FOR HUMANITY
The ultimate development of a planet as a second home for Earth life is terraforming.   Why is Mars the most productive next place to settle and how can it be terraformed.
Jim Brown,  The Mars Society


For a printable version of the 2010 Astronomy schedule, click here.