Mtg & Talk

The Warren Astronomical Society meets monthly on the third Thursday in Room 208 in the "E" building at Macomb Community College, 14500 E 12 Mile Road, Warren, MI, 48088.

We do a bit of club business early on, then have a major presentation usually put together by one of our members.

We simulcast meetings online using Zoom. Meetup charges even more money to set up hybrid meetings, so subscribe to our email list on warrenastro.org to get the Zoom links! Meetings are also livestreaming on our YouTube channel.

Feature
Keys to the Kingdom: Memories of Northwestern’s Lindheimer Astrophysical Research Center
By Dr Sasan Sadr
The Lindheimer Astrophysical Research Center was a distinctive twin-domed observatory that stood on Northwestern University’s Lakefill from 1967 until its demolition in 1995. Built as the first structure on the newly created lakefront land, it housed a 40-inch research telescope and a 16-inch teaching telescope, both Boller & Chivens Cassegrain reflectors, and quickly became a campus landmark.
In this talk Sasan will share the story of how and why Lindheimer was built, offer a pictorial tour of the building and its instruments, and describe what it was like to have full access to the facility as a graduate student in the mid 1980s, including the keys, control of the domes and telescopes, and the switch that turned off the nearby streetlights. He will also touch on memorable moments such as the busy public nights during Halley’s Comet’s 1986 apparition, and close with the dramatic account of the observatory’s final days and demolition.
About the Speaker
Sasan Sadr received his Ph.D. in Physics from Northwestern University in 1993. He began graduate studies in Astronomy and had access to the Lindheimer Astrophysical Research Center during those years; even after shifting his concentration to High Energy Physics in his third year of studies, his access to the facility continued. After completing his doctorate, he entered the business world, where for more than three decades he has led large-scale operational excellence, continuous improvement, and digital transformation initiatives. He now lives in the Phoenix area.

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If you would like to present a short talk (5-15 minutes) or a long talk (40-60 minutes) at a future meeting, please email Jonathan Kade at firstvp@warrenastro.org.

The views expressed in presentations are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent, and should not be attributed to, the Warren Astronomical Society.