General Meetings
ASKC General Meetings are usually held at the UMKC Volker Campus in Royall Hall, Room 111, on the fourth Saturday of each month — except:
- September: Members-only picnic (no regular meeting)
- November: Saturday prior to Thanksgiving
- December: Annual holiday party (no regular meeting)
The night begins with 30-Minute Astronomy (a short program on an introductory topic), followed by a meet and greet with light refreshments. ASKC's library will be open for browsing and material checkout. The meeting format typically includes welcome and introductions, guest speaker presentation, Q&A, and then general announcements and business items.
Meetings are free and open to the public.
This Month's Meeting
Join us for our March 2024 General Meeting, Saturday, March 23rd, at 7:00 p.m., in UMKC’s Royall Hall.
Our March speaker is Don Eyles, Developer for the Apollo Lunar Landing Software
Don Eyles worked on the Apollo Project from 1966 through 1972, and on the NASA space program until 1998, as a computer scientist at the MIT Instrumentation Lab and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He created flight software for the lunar landing phase of the Moon mission, and received the NASA Public Service Award for solving an in-flight problem that could have prevented Apollo 14 from landing successfully. He invented a sequencing system that is currently in operation on the International Space Station. At present he is a writer, photographer and sculptor based in Boston.
Schedule
Saturday, March 23rd, 2024
- 6:00 PM: 30-Minute Astronomy by Stuart Riley
- 6:30 PM: Refreshments, ASKC Library Open
- 7:00 PM: Program
Upcoming Meetings
The next General Meeting will be at UMKC Royall Hall on April 24, and May 25.
The speaker for the April General Meeting is Dr. Rajendra Gupta, who will be speaking on Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Universe's Age
Dr. Gupta has a Ph. D. in physics from the University of Allahabad, India.
Adjunct professor of physics, University of Ottawa; formerly at National Research Council of Canada and McGill University.
Teaching astrophysics to senior undergraduate and graduate students.
Dr. Gupta is currently doing research in astrophysics, cosmology, and general relativity, especially the dynamics of the universe under evolutionary physical constants beyond the standard model; CMB, JWST, and cosmic dawn observations, BAO, BBN; LSS and galaxy formation; dark matter and dark energy.
Location
Royall Hall, UMKC, 800 East 52nd Street, Kansas City, Missouri
Free parking is available in the garage south of 52nd Street.
Enter Royall Hall via the east doors under the pedestrian bridge.
Virtual option: ASKC members will receive an invitation to participate via Zoom.
Vicinity Map: