“One Hundred Years Living in the Universe” Part 1

ONLINE: The Houston Astronomical Society presents
Don Selle in a presentation titled “One Hundred Years Living in the Universe" - Part 1".

Description: "Humanity has been living in the Universe for exactly 101 years. We got here on January 1st, 2025, when a paper by Edwin Hubble titled “Cephids in Spiral Nebulae” was read to the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society, held in Washington D.C. that year.

"Since we have always lived in the Universe, one filled with about a trillion galaxies like our own Milky Way, this sounds strange, but it’s true. The results in Hubble’s paper, proved unequivocally that the multitude of “spiral nebulae” astronomers had studied, were not a part of the Milky Way Galaxy, but existed far outside of it. Suddenly, the Milky Way was demoted from being the entire Universe, to being a rather common member of an immensely larger system of galaxies like the Milky Way.

"This presentation provides a brief survey of the understanding of the Universe from about 1920 through the confirmation of the Big Bang in 1965. During this period, our concept of the Universe changed dramatically. It will touch on the key discoveries, the new technology which made them possible and the people whose research expanded our understanding of the Universe we live in."

Speaker: Don Selle is a happily retired engineer and project manager whose career in the offshore oil and gas industry took him to many places around the world. Some of them were even nice places to work.
Since 2003, Don has been an avid amateur astronomer, astro-imager and HAS member. Studying the history and science of astronomy kept him well occupied and mostly out of trouble during his long stays away from home.

But his real passion has been for astro-imaging. Starting out with only a basic knowledge of photography, he has learned the ropes and has become a competent astrophotographer and nightscape imager. After 20 years of learning the craft, he is still striving to complete that perfect astro-image that knocks the socks off those who view it and wins multiple awards. It’s good to have a dream!

This meeting will be held virtually via Zoom. To attend, you must register for the meeting. You can use the link below. You will receive an email with the details of the meeting and a link that will allow you to join in.

Register here.

You only need to register once!

Join us Friday, January 9th, 2026, at 7:00 pm CT.
See you then!

Top image credit: NASA/ESA