SAO Student News

For each SAO e-zine, we would like to share some of the exciting astronomy news stories from our studnets. If you have an item that you would like included in future e-zines, please let us know.

News Items

In September 2006, SAO Masters students Eduardo Manuel Alvarez officially opened OLASU, the Observatorio Los Algarrobos, Salto, Uruguay. The observatory is home to a Meade LX-90 8" and a Meade LX-200R 12" which are housed in a 3.6m dome on the roof of Eduardo's home. The opening was attended by Dr. Gonzalo Tancredi, an astronomer from the Departamento de Astronomia in Montevideo who studies comets and Near Earth Asteroids and played a leading role in the proposal of the newly accepted definition of a planet at the General Assembly of the IAU in Prague this year, and Prof. Gonzalo Vicino, a retired astronomer and author of several books on relativity and cosmology.

In 2003, SAO Masters student Shaun Saunders wrote a science fiction story for his HET602 Exploring the Solar System project entitled "Curtain Call". Shaun submitted the short story to the online magazine Aphelion, were it was published in their September 2003 edition. The story will soon be featured on the US radio station WRFR's weekly science fiction program 'Beam Me Up'. WRFR broadcasts from Maine and Shaun's first story with then will be broadcasts just before midnight on 31 December 2006. Other science fiction stories of Shaun's have won him the University of Newcastle Physics Society's 2005 science fiction short story competition and appeared in AntipodeanSF and Cosmos.
For more details, see:

SAO Student Publications & Presentations

We are proud to announcement publications and conference presentations of our SAO students and alumni for the past year. Below is a list of some publications and presentations that we are aware of. Please advice SAO if you have any new work you would like mentioned in future SAO e-zines.

Papers Published:

  • Peterson, J. and Mackie, G. (2006), "A Brief History of the Astrophysical Research Consortium and the Apache Point Observatory", Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, vol. 9, no. 1, p. 109
  • P.D. Shankland, E.J. Rivera, G. Laughlin, D.L. Blank, A. Price, B. Gary, R. Bissinger, F. Ringwald, G. White, G.W. Henry, P. McGee, A.S. Wolf, B. Carter, S. Lee, J. Biggs, B. Monard, M.C.B. Ashley (2006), "On the Search For Transits of the Planets Orbiting Gl 876", Astrophysical Journal, accepted (to appear in Dec 2006 v653)
  • Greenhill, J. G., Hill, K. M., Dieters, S., Fienberg, K., Howlett, M., Meijers, A., Munro, A., Senkbeil, C. (2006), "Decrease in the orbital period of dwarf nova OY Carinae", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 372, p.1129
  • Gay, P. L., Price, A., Searle, T. (2006), "Astronomy Podcasting: A Low-Cost Tool for Affecting Attitudes in Diverse Audiences" Astronomy Education Review, vol. 5, p36
  • Price, A., Gay, P. L., Searle, T., Brissenden, G. (2006), "A History and Informal Assessment of the 'Slacker Astronomy' Podcast" Astronomy Education Review, vol. 5, p.53
  • Templeton, M. R., Leaman, R., Szkody, P., Henden, A., Cook, L., Starkey, D., et al. (2006), "The Recently Discovered Dwarf Nova System ASAS J002511+1217.2: A New WZ Sagittae Star", Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, vol. 118, p236
  • Imada, A., Kato, T., Kubota, K., Uemura, M., Ishioka, R., Kiyota, S., Kinugasa, K., Maehara, H., Nakajima, K., Monard, B., Starkey, D. R., Oksanen, A., Nogami, D. (2006), "The 2003/2004 Superoutburst of SDSS J013701.06-091234.9", Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, vol.58, p143
  • Behrend, R. et al. (including Starkey, D. R.) (2006), "Four new binary minor planets: (854) Frostia, (1089) Tama, (1313) Berna, (4492) Debussy" Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 446, p.1177

Conference Papers:

  • Poster presented at the 2006 IAU General Assembly in Prague, Czech Republic A. Price, P. Gay, Searle, T. "Podcast, Blogs and New Media Outreach Techniques For Addressing Busy Lifestyles"