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Please join us at the campus observatory at 9:00pm on Friday, May 17 for a guided tour of the night sky. Professor Nancy Chanover will present a short astronomical talk, aided by graduate students Laura Mayorga, Nigel Mathes and Carlos Vargas. Objects to be observed include the moon, the beautiful ringed planet Saturn, the Mizar and Alcor double star, the M3 globular cluster and many more. Children are particularly welcome!
The Department of Astronomy and the Southern New Mexico Natural History Foundation will host a Sky Safari at the NMSU campus observatory from 8 to 10pm Saturday, May 18. Graduate student assistants Jacob Vander Vliet, Carlos Vargas and Kyle Uckert will be available for information at the event.
We will look at several fascinating astronomical objects. Saturn is nearly at opposition, which means that now is the best time to get a good look at the ringed planet, located between the constellations of Virgo and Libra. The Hercules star cluster, a grouping of several hundreds of thousands of stars in the constellation of Hercules, will be observable. The double star Castor, in the constellation of the twins, Gemini, will also be shown. The bright first quarter moon will also be visible near Castor.
Our hats go off to Lorenza Sanchez, astronomy's associate accountant and financial wixard, who recently received one of three new Arts & Sciences staff awards for professional development. Brava, Lorenza!
Congratulations to graduate students Malynda Chizek, winner of the 2012 Pegasus Award for excellence in teaching, and to Sebastian Trujillo-Gomez, who was recently awarded the 2012 Zia Award for excellence in research. Joining them are the 2013 winner of the Murrell Award for outstanding research or professional development, Maria Patterson, and Liz Klimek, winner of the 2011 Rappaport Award for outstanding public service.
We also congratulate recent PhD Chas Miller for receiving a 2013 College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Graduate Award, and senior student Sebastian Trujillo-Gomez for his 2013 Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the Graduate School.
Our best wishes go out to Dr. Maria Patterson, who defended her PhD work on Properties of Star Formation and the Interstellar Medium in Galaxy Outskirts on April 5, 2013. Three cheers for Maria!
Give an abundant hurrah for Dr. Ryan Hamilton, whose PhD work on Constraining Photospheric Abundances of Donor Stars in Cataclysmic Variables came to fruition on April 4, 2013. Well done, Ryan!
Let's hear it for Dr. Michael Kirk, who defended his PhD thesis on The Anatomy of Chromospheric Flares and Associated Ephemeral Brightenings on February 15, 2013. Bravo, Michael!
Four cheers (one per satellite) for Dr. Chas Miller, for his PhD thesis work on Methods for Constraining Surface Properties and Volatile Migration on Phoebe, Triton, Pluto, and the Moon, presented on February 22, 2013.