Academics » Graduate Outreach

Astronomy department graduate students are strongly involved in our community, and take part in numerous outreach activities. They work with school children, give talks to amateur astronomy societies, arrange telescope viewing events for clubs, and act to promote the love of astronomy and science within local schools and other organizations throughout the Southwest Border Region. A sampling of some of their recent events is shown below.

• NMSU graduate students Mike Sussman, Randy Carlson, and James Stockton traveled to Holloman Air Force Base for the 2007 Xprize Cup. Several thousand area elementary students attended the event, with attractions ranging from acrobatic aircraft to Space Ship One.
  
  NMSU was represented by several solar telescopes and one of the department's 8-inch Meade Telescopes. Mike, Randy, and James spent the day showing students and members of the public views of the Sun (including a solar prominence) as well as the planet Venus, visible in broad daylight! The NMSU astronomers were in turn treated to an airshow, functioning examples of current and future aerospace vehicles, and the combined interest of many open minds.

• Astronomy alumnus Erica Voges (now an NMSU professor in mathematics) and astronomy professor Nicole Vogt served as judges for the annual Southwestern New Mexico Regional Science & Engineering Fair, hosted at NMSU this March. They evaluated posters on diverse topics covering everything from parachute design, static electricty, and melting efficiencies to studies of gravity and air resistance, and interviewed grade six through twelve students to hear about their scientific experiments.

• On November 8th, 2006, Mercury transited the Sun, starting at noon (MT) and taking about four hours to cross the disk of the Sun. Perfectly clear skies ensured constant viewing for the entire transit. In honor of this event the Astronomy Department set up telescopes outside the department building on the sidewalk. Faculty and graduate students took turns throughout the day at the telescopes, encouraging passers-by to catch a glimpse of this rare sight of the inner-most planet and explaining the details of the event (as well as taking time to drink in the sights themselves).

  Mercury appears as a tiny dot on the Sun (photo center), far
  smaller than the erupting sun spot on the rightmost edge.

• In July, Tanya Tavenner attended the Alamogordo Astronomy Club's monthly meeting and gave an hour-long talk about her research involving the planet Venus. Afterward, she spent a couple of hours answering questions and talking about astronomy with the club members. This was an unusual public outreach event, in that Tanya was specifically asked to discuss her ongoing research.

  Tanya has taken near-infrared images of Venus with
  the Apache Point Observatory 3.5-meter Telescope.

• Ashley Ruiter recently joined up with NMSU physicist Dr. Matthias Burkardt to talk about astrophysical topics of interest with a local high school science fiction class. Topics ranged from black hole creation to dark matter, and beyond.

• Over the Halloween weekend, several graduate students traveled to the Gila National Wilderness area for a public event organized by the Gila park rangers. A 45 minute talk about general astronomy by Ryan Campbell preceded some wonderful sky viewing with the department's two portable 8-in Meade telescopes. Approximately 75 members of the public were in attendance and were treated to an amazingly clear and dark sky. Dust lanes in the Milky Way were clearly visible and the International Space Station passed (quickly) overhead. After the event, the graduate students hiked back to camp and relaxed around the fire.

• James Stockton participated in a program called Astro-mentoring put on by the Natural History Museum of Las Cruces. The program was for third through sixth grade students and involved meeting for six consecutive Thursdays in the Fall. Students each received a small telescope from the Natural History Museum to use at home for the full six week class. Each Thursday evening James showed the students interesting objects in the night sky and explained the formation and physical characteristics of what they were viewing. With luck, a lifelong interested in astronomy was cemented in each of their minds.

If you would like to request a similar event for a local school or organization, you may do so here.