Hamilton Amateur Astronomers: The Life and Times of Betelgeuse

This is an adaptation of a successful planetarium show which Damien Robertson ran while at McMaster. The show focuses on a ‘recap’ of the life of Betelgeuse as it inches closer towards supernova and explores star formation, evolution and death. He’ll also talk about how planet formation is an intrinsic process in star formation as well. He’ll modify the talk to include more observational details and current images.

About Damien Robertson
He currently works as a data scientist creating numerical algorithms to reconstruct 3D scenes sets of 2D images. His professional career spawned from his education in observational astronomy and physics. As a Masters student at McMaster University his research involved analyzing giant molecular clouds for clues about how stars form and evolve. He worked with and developed algorithms for finding sources (new stars) and structure (filaments that provide material to form a star) in 2D and 3D observational data sets. His undergraduate research involved the sporadic, high intensity radiation from the super massive black holes at the centers of active galaxies. The last glimpses of light before matter falls into the singularity are often at X-ray and UV energies and can even come from within light-hours of the black hole event horizon. This research used modern signal analysis to tease out details about the physical processes that occur near the event horizon.

Place and Time
The meeting will be at The Hamilton Spectator Building located at 44 Frid St., near the junction of Highway 403 and Main St. West in Hamilton. Starting time is at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free and everyone is welcome!

Door Prizes
There will be a draw for door prizes at the meeting and a free door prize ticket to all who arrive before the 7:30 start time!

Food Share Donations
Donations of non-perishable food for the Hamilton Food Share program will be collected at this meeting. Please drop off any items at the drop-box located near the entrance of the auditorium. All donations are gratefully accepted. Thanks to your generosity, we’ve collected thousands of pounds of food since we began. Let’s keep up the great work as the need continues.

http://www.amateurastronomy.org/general-meeting-janurary-9-2014-730pm/