Program

Below is the program for our 2016 Summer Undergraduate Astronomy Institute, which runs from June 20-24 at Caltech and Pomona College. We will convene for two days at Caltech, with a dinner at Caltech astronomy, and an excursion to the Mt. Wilson Observatory for an evening viewing session . Then we have a day at the Big Bear Solar Observatory, and a day at Pomona College that will feature a chance to do hands-on work with a solar telescope and a workshop on SWIFT GRB followup. We also will have a nice planetarium show at Pomona, featuring our new digital planetarium. An additional evening at Palomar Observatory on June 25 will feature observations with the 200″ telescope and tours of the entire site and the 48″ and 60″ telescopes.

Day 1 – Monday, June 20, 2016 – Caltech Orientation and Talks 

Day 1 features a round-up of talks from the research mentors and leads in the ZTF project. The goal is to give you a sense of the astrophysical and technical context of your projects. Scientific talks will highlight some of the recent research results from the Caltech investigators, and how the your summer project will contribute to the research. From this day you will learn about not only their own projects, but will gain awareness of the larger community of investigators at Caltech and the scientific and technical projects of your fellow students.

Schedule for Day 1

9:00-9:30 Reception and introductions over coffee and pastries
9:30-9:45 Shri Kulkarni – Caltech professor, and Director, Caltech observatories – http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~srk/
9:40-10:00 Eric Bellm – Caltech ZTF Project scientist – talk: Bellm_ZTF-undergrads_160619  website: – http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~ebellm/
10:10-10:40 Cameron Hummels – postdoc at Caltech – talk: Cameron_Hummels_talk_pomona website: http://chummels.org/#research
10:40-11:00 Ragnhild Lunnan – postdoctoral researcher on supernovae – talk:   Ragnhild_Lunnan_ztf_summer_institute  website: scholar.harvard.edu/rlunnan
11:00-11:30 break
11:30-11:50 Yi Cao – graduate student at Caltech + expert on supernovae –  “Fast and Furious: Finding Infant Supernovae” talk:  Yi_Cao_ZTF_undergrad_2016  website:
– http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~ycao/
11:50-12:10 David Cook – postdoctoral researcher on star clusters and star formation – Talk – DaveCook_PTFhalpha_CLU2 ;   website – http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~dcook/
12:15 lunch – with professors, grad students, and postdocs.

6:00PM Caltech Astronomy Dinner and Talk – Aditya Sood, Producer of “The Martian” (Caltech Astronomy Patio)

7:30-9:30PM – Viewing of The Martian at Caltech Astronomy Hameetman auditorium.

Day 2 – Tuesday, June 21, 2016 – Caltech Lab Tours and Technology 

Day 2 features a set of lab tours and discussions of the technical background within the ZTF projects. It also features additional talks by Caltech and JPL researchers, who are doing cutting-edge instrument development and satellite development in astrophysics.

9:00-9:30  Coffee and pastries
9:30-10:00 Mansi Kasliwal – Caltech professor and PI of the ZTF/PIRE project – http://www.caltech.edu/news/hunting-ephemeral-cosmic-flashes-conversation-mansi-kasliwal-49782
10:00-11:00 Lab tour of Caltech Observatories with Roger Smith
11:00-11:30 break
11:30-11:50 Thomas Kupfer – postdoctoral researcher on ZTF – http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~tkupfer/
11:50-12:20 Jason Rhodes – JPL research scientist – talk: Rhodes_ZTF-SS web site: – https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/JRhodes/
1:00 lunch with JPL and Caltech research scientists, postdocs and grad students at Caltech Atheneum
2:00 PM – Caltech scavenger hunt
7:00PM – Evening Program – Viewing with Mt. Wilson 60″ telescope.
Evening June 21 – Mt. Wilson Observing on the 60” telescope!   Meet at Astronomy Building at 7:00 PM. Cars will depart from Cahill at 7:00, to arrive to Mt. Wilson by 7:50, where we will be met by our guide. Will return to campus approximately at midnight. 

Day 3 – Wednesday, June 22, 2016 – Solar Astronomy at the Big Bear Solar Observatory

An in-depth exploration of solar astronomy with Jay Pasachoff and the Big Bear Solar Observatory. Meet at the Caltech Astronomy Building at 9:20 AM and return about 4:00 PM.  Pomona students will be picked up along the way – at 10:00AM at Millikan building. Will include overview lecture of solar-type stars and solar astronomy and viewing with BBSO telescopes.

9:30AM-10:00AM Drive from Pasadena to Claremont

10:00AM pick-up of Pomona students at Millikan Building

10:15-12:00PM – Drive to Big Bear Solar Observatory and Orientation

12:00-2:00PM – Lecture on Solar Astronomy from Jay Pasachoff + Tour of BBSO facilities and demonstration of high resolution imaging of the sun.

Jay’s Lecture on Solar Eclipses – PDF 

Jay’s Lecture on the Transit of Mercury – PDF – pasachoff.ToM-asof14May2016

2:00-4:00PM – Drive to return to Pasadena + Claremont

Day 4 – Thursday, June 23, 2016 – Hands-on Data Analysis at Pomona College + Planetarium Demo

Day 4 features a planetarium demonstration, more lectures on observational astronomy in the morning, and a chance to test out the Las Campanas Remote Observatory in Chile. At the end of the day we will ask students to write up a short proposal about how they might imagine using ZTF for research, and also a short piece about the Institute and how it has changed their understanding about astronomy and their research project.

10:30-12:30PM – Hands-on workshop on Swift Data Analysis by Loredana Vetere

Presentation slides from Loredana’s talk – Swift-workshop2016-slides

Handout for hands-on workshop – Swift-workshop16_notes

12:30-1:15 – Lunch

1:15-2:00 – Pomona scavenger hunt

2:00-3:00 – Planetarium Show

3:00 PM – Demonstration of Las Campanas Remote Observatory at Pomona Remote Observing Room.  Mike Long, Trustee of the Carnegie Institute, and die-hard astronomy enthusiast, has built a fantastic system for remote observing using a 0.3-meter telescope in Chile. He will demonstrate this system, known as the LCRO (http://lascampanasremote.org). Students will be able to get images of Southern Hemisphere targets later this summer, using a telescope on one of the world’s best sites – Las Campanas, Chile!

Day 5 – Saturday – June 25 – Palomar Observing at the 200″ telescope

Meet at Caltech at 11:30AM;  will pick up people at Pomona around 12:15PM, to arrive at Palomar by 2:30 PM. Tour of PTF telescopes + initial day tour of 200”. Dinner then observing at 200”. Overnight at Monastery + campsite.  Students will also give short (5 minute) talks about their research projects during the evening).

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