An evening at CU's Fiske Planetarium and Sommers-Bausch Observatory

Bring your family and friends to an exciting evening on Saturday, May 17 at CU Boulder to experience the state of the art viewing of our universe with Ivy+ alums . CU Professor John Stocke will speak.

Date
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Time 4:00 - 7:00 pm
What Cosmology talk, Planetarium program, and Observatory visit
Who Alums in the Colorado Ivy+ network and their families and friends
Cost Adults - $10, children/students under 21 - $1
When to RSVP   
Now!  (See links below for Harvard and non-Harvard ticketing)

This event is a triple-header ...

  • A talk by CU Astronomy Professor John Stocke on Current Frontiers in Modern Cosmology
  • A program at the newly-refurbished Fiske Planetarium
  • After the talk, visit the Sommers-Bausch Observatory (just behind the Planetarium), cloud conditions permitting
 ... and refreshments will be served.

Immerse yourself in space: Use your binoculars in the theater to view up to 20 million stars in the largest and one of the highest quality planetariums in the U.S.  After months of renovations and technical upgrades, the Fiske Planetarium reopened last October with a high-definition screen capable of achieving nearly 8 times more resolution than the standard HD television, completely surrounding you with a 360-degree view.  Fiske also offers a variety of "big screen" videos similar to what can be seen at IMAX theaters in Denver during the day on weekends, but this event is exclusively for us.

Also exclusive to us is a visit to the Sommers-Bausch Observatory (SBO), located directly behind Fiske Planetarium.  SBO was built in 1953 and housed CU's first on campus observatory.  Like the Planetarium, it is part of CU's Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences Department.  SBO has 3 large telescopes with apertures of 24", 18", and 16", all of which are regularly used for undergraduate research projects.  The primary research telescope is the 24", which is housed in the iconic observatory dome. The 16" & 18" scopes are primarily used for general public viewing.  Seeing a simulation at the Fiske and then walking up to the Observatory to see deep sky objects like galaxies and nebulae with your own eyes is profound experience for all ages.

This event, organized by the Rocky Mountain Harvard University Club, is open to all alumni of the Colorado Ivy+ network, their friends, and their families.  It is generously underwritten by Michael Banks AB '77 and MBA Financial Services, LLC

Tickets:  $10 adult, $1 children / students under 21.

Harvard alums click here to buy tickets


Others please click here


John Stocke; B.A. Princeton, 1968; Ph.D. University of Arizona, 1977

John has been a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Colorado since 1985, specializing in using observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope to study the gas recycling process into and out from galaxies that fuels future formation of stars in galaxies like our Milky Way. His Hubble studies also include the fueling process for super-massive Black Holes in galactic centers. John is a member of the science team for the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), an ultraviolet spectrograph installed 4 years ago on Hubble.

He also does field work in "ethnic astronomy and cosmology", the study of the astronomical beliefs and uses made of the sky by ancient and indigenous cultures.  Recently, he has made detailed studies in the field of the astronomy of the Polynesians, Incas, aboriginal Australians, Lakota, and Navajo, as well as ancient eclipse prediction.

Directions and Parking

Regent Drive is the first turning to the right (east) as you head north on Broadway from its intersection with Baseline Road.  (Coming from Denver on US 36, exit at Baseline and stay in the right-hand lane, which will take you to Broadway.)  The first right turn on Regent takes you to Lot 306, and beyond it to the south and east is Lot 308, which offers free parking on weekends.  Then the Planetarium is further up Regent Drive to the east.