MAS
Apr 2nd, 2009

Monthly meetings of the Minnesota Astronomical Society are held on the first Thursday of the month from 7:00 pm until 9:00 pm. Visitors and guests are welcome to the meeting as well as MAS members.

April 5th, 2009
Speaker: U of MN Assistant Professor: Vuk Mandic

Gravitational Wave Search: LIGO
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has built three multi-kilometer interferometers at two sites: Hanford, WA and Livingston Parish, LA. These interferometers are designed to search for gravitational waves that could be produced in some of the most violent events in the Universe: mergers of two neutron stars or black holes, supernova explosions, or the Big Bang. Detection of gravitational waves would therefore open a new window into astronomy and could potentially give us a view of the early Universe, when the Universe was only a fraction-of-a-second old.

The LIGO interferometers are sensitive to mirror motions at the level of one ten-thousandth of the proton size. Much of my work is geared toward understanding the contributions from various noise sources that are important at such sensitivities. I am also involved in other instrumental aspects of LIGO such as developing diagnostic tools, performing signal simulations to test various search algorithms etc.

I also co-chair one the of LIGO Data Analysis Groups, searching for the stochastic background of gravitational waves. The nature of such a background could be cosmological (early Universe models, cosmic strings models) or astrophysical (integrating supernovae or pulsar signals across the Universe). We have placed the most stringent bound on the energy density in gravitational waves, thereby rulling out some of the models of stochastic gravitational-wave background due to cosmic strings and superstrings.

Topic: Astronomy with Gravitional Wave Detectors

Location: Fairview Community Center, Roseville MN

(Click on any thumbnail to see a larger 1504x1000 JPEG image)

Thursday 04 02th, 2009

April 2009 MAS meeting
MAS meeting directions		 April 2009 MAS meeting
Merle presents Messier Marathon Awards @ April 2009 MAS meeting		 April 2009 MAS meeting
Merle presents Messier Marathon Awards
April 2009 MAS meeting
Merle presents Messier Marathon Award to 2nd place Experienced Division: Ken Hugill
observed 90 objectss		 April 2009 MAS meeting
Merle & Ken 		April 2009 MAS meeting
Merle announces Messier Marathon Awards to Novice Division: 1st place: Jon Poppele observed 54 objects, 2nd place: John Donohue observed 38 objects
April 2009 MAS meeting
Merle draws Messier Marathon Door Prize Awards to Ash Lotlikar & Steve Anderson		 April 2009 MAS meeting
Merle draws Messier Marathon Door Prize Awards		 April 2009 MAS meeting
Merle presents Messier Marathon Award to Jeff Burrows
April 2009 MAS meeting
Merle presents Messier Marathon Award to Jeff Burrows		 April 2009 MAS meeting
1st place Messier Marathon Award winner Experienced Division: Jeff Burrows
98 observed		 April 2009 MAS meeting
Steve presents Astro League Local Galaxy Group & Galactic Neighborhood Award to Dave Tosteson
April 2009 MAS meeting
Steve & Dave		 April 2009 MAS meeting
Steve presents Astro League Award		 April 2009 MAS meeting
Merle talks about Gemini
April 2009 MAS meeting
Title slide 		April 2009 MAS meeting
Vuk Mandic		 April 2009 MAS meeting
Vuk Mandic
April 2009 MAS meeting
April 2009 MAS meeting
April 2009 MAS meeting
audience		 April 2009 MAS meeting
audience		 April 2009 MAS meeting
audience
April 2009 MAS meeting
Vuk Mandis		 April 2009 MAS meeting
audience @ April 2009 MAS meeting		 April 2009 MAS meeting
audience @ April 2009 MAS meeting
April 2009 MAS meeting
audience @ April 2009 MAS meeting		 April 2009 MAS meeting
audience @ April 2009 MAS meeting		 April 2009 MAS meeting
Fairview Community Center
April 2009 MAS meeting
Fairview Community Center

To View Vuk Mandic's Power Point presentation :
200904_Mandic_LIGO.ppt 14.5 Meg powerpoint file

Get a free Powerpoint 2003 viewer program from Microsoft here. 1.9 meg file

Monthly meetings of the Minnesota Astronomical Society are held on the first Thursday of the month from 7:00 pm until 9:00 pm. Visitors and guests are welcome to the meeting as well as MAS members.

Upcoming meetings:
May 7th, 2009
Speaker: Megan Karejny
Topic: Microwave Analysis of Proto Stellar Disks

Previous MAS Meetings :
Jan 2007 : Local Group of Galaxies
Feb 2007 : Amateur Astronomy Research
Mar 2007 : Canceled due to Snow Storm
Apr 2007 : Catastrphic Novas
May 2007 : UFOs Physical Trace Research
Jun 2007 : Infrared Observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope
Jul 2007 : Catastrophic Variables & M1
Aug 2007 : Student Astronomy Experiments
Sep 2007 : Asteroids
Oct 2007 : The 280 Mpc Void in Eridanus -- Contemplating the Void
Nov 2007 : Observing the 'Ain't No' objects
Dec 2007 : Tour of National Maritime Museum / Royal Greenwich Observatory

Jan 2008 : Visual Variable Star Observing Is Fun
Feb 2008 : Exploring the Moon and Mars in Utah?
Mar 2008 : Ongoing Monitoring of Classical Novae and U of MN Outreach program Universe in the Park
Apr 2008 : Viewing and Imaging in the SW USA
May 2008 : The Local Group of Galaxies: A Voyage Within Our Nearest Universe
June 2008 : Demonstrating mirror testing techniques
July 2008 : Onan Tour
August 2008 : committee and observing site reports, "Contemporary Lab Experiences in Astronomy, an Overview of Available Software part 2" and a general discussion of MAS plans and goals.
Sept 2008 :General discussion of MAS plans and goals
Oct 2008 :First Look at Stardust's Comet Cargo
Nov 2008 :The Vatican and Astronomy (video presentation)
Dec 2008 :Numerical Simulations of AGN Jets

Jan 2009 :Astro League Observing Programs & Obsevation Planning and Processing
Feb 2009 :MAS Budget Approval
March 2009 :Dr. Kris Davidson - Eta Carinae

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Photos by Ben Huset

Last revision 04-06th, 2009
by Ben

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