Astronomy Talk & Trivia w/Seattle Astronomical Society
Details
New Event Schedule
Doors Open: 6:30 PM (Recommended to reach 15mins early because of parking restrictions)
New Member Orientation: 6:30–6:50 PM
Trivia: 6:50–7:00 PM
Break: 5 minutes
Speaker Presentation: ~7:05 PM (includes Q&A)
Gather & Mingle: ~30 minutes following the talk
RSVP at https://www.seattleastro.org/events-1/membership-meetup-2026-03-18-18-30
Talk Title: Rubin’s LSST: The Greatest Movie of All Time
Location: Theodore Jacobsen Observatory
Join us for an evening of connection, club updates, and a fascinating presentation by Željko Ivezić, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Washington.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) is one of the most ambitious astronomical surveys ever undertaken. Beginning this year, the observatory will capture panoramic images of the entire visible sky every clear night for ten years, creating what scientists describe as a “digital color movie of the night sky.” The survey will generate tens of petabytes of imaging data and catalog roughly 20 billion galaxies and a similar number of stars, enabling discoveries across many fields of astronomy. These observations will help scientists detect potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids, map the structure of our galaxy, and probe fundamental mysteries of the universe such as dark matter and dark energy.
In this talk, Dr. Ivezić will describe the scientific goals behind the Rubin Observatory project, highlight the engineering and construction of this remarkable facility, and showcase early data from what promises to be one of the most transformative sky surveys in the history of astronomy.
Željko Ivezić received undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering and physics from the University of Zagreb, Croatia, and earned his PhD in physics from the University of Kentucky in 1995. After working on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at Princeton University, he joined the University of Washington faculty in 2004. His research focuses on the detection, analysis, and interpretation of electromagnetic radiation from astronomical sources. He currently serves as the Construction Project Director for the Rubin Observatory/LSST project, where he continues to play a leading role in shaping the future of astronomical discovery.