Green Bank Star Quest 5

Biography:
Scott G. Lever joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1984 as a
member of the Voyager project team. Since then, he has worked on
other projects including Mars Observer, Topex/Poseidon,
Cassini/Huygens, Spitzer, and is currently working as a Tactical
Uplink Lead engineer on the Mars Exploration Rovers project. Scott
usually works with ground software development and maintenance
(command simulation) or with flight operations. Scott's holds a
masters degree in computer science and has attended the United States
Naval Academy, Cerritos College, California State University at Los
Angeles, and Azusa Pacific University. Scott has been a ham radio
operator and a novice astronomer and occasionally enjoys using his 8"
Newtonian telescope to stare at the heavens.

Talk description:
Scott Lever serves as a Tactical Uplink Lead (TUL) engineer on the
Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) project, and he is currently in
training to become a mission manager for MER. Scott will discuss
mission operations, science results, and engineering challenges as he
shows his multimedia presentation, "Roaming Mars, a Personal
Perspective", which includes some 3-D anaglyphs from the Martian surface.

Cometary Studies, Assistant Professor of Physics & Astronomy Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA.

Ph.D. in Astronomy, University of Massachusetts Amherst, February, 1999.
Dissertation title: “Millimeter-wave Molecular Mapping of Comets Hyakutake and
Hale-Bopp," Thesis Advisor: F.P. Schloerb.

Bachelor of Arts (Physics and Astronomy) with High Honor, May 1990. Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia.

BS Astrophysics 1990 University of Wales, Cardiff UK; PhD Radio Astronomy 1994 University of Manchester (Jodrell Bank) UK; Research
Fellow Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany
1995-1998; Staff Scientist Arecibo Observatory, PR 1998-2001; Royal
Society Research Fellow University of Manchester, UK (2001-2006); WVU Physics Department 2006-present. My research interests are compact objects, binary systems and transient radio sources.

Astronomical Society of the Pacific Night Sky Network, and amateur astronomy public outreach

Marni Berendsen of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, has served since 2003 as the lead project manager of the NASA Night Sky Network, a nationwide coalition of amateur astronomy clubs dedicated to astronomy outreach. An amateur astronomer for many years, she is a Project ASTRO partner and a member of the Mount Diablo Astronomical Society in Concord, California, participating regularly in the club's outreach programs and events. She received her Masters in Astronomy from the University of Western Sydney. Her interest in astronomy was sparked as a young Girl Scout camping out in a high Sierra meadow while Scout leaders told stories of the Greek gods illustrated by the tapestry of constellations over their heads.

Prof. John E. Littleton

Theoretical Astrophysicist West Virginia University Department of Physics

Presentation Title: "The Biggest Bangs since the Big Bang: Gamma-Ray Bursts and Learning About the Nearest Star"

The production of gamma rays is discussed. Their detection, the
determination of their locations, and continuing efforts to understand
their causes are described.

Dr. Jack Littleton has been a faculty member in the West Virginia University Department of Physics for more than 30 years. He is a theoretical astrophysicst who received his BS in engineering physics at Cornell and his Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Rochester. In his research he has worked on supernove, white dwarfs, the solar wind, red giants, and galaxy structure. He has observed with the 140-ft radio telescope at Green Bank and the Coude feed spectrograph at Kitt Peak. He has given presentations at star parties and astronomy days around West Virginia for the last decade.

Presentation Title: “Prometheus Bound: NASA’s Return Mission to Mercury”

It has been over three decades since the Mariner 10 spacecraft did three flybys of the innermost planet to our Sun, Mercury, photographing 45% of its surface, and making enormous discoveries about this hot, hard-to-visit (or even observe) planet (it has a magnetic field – who knew??). Until recently, no spacecraft has been sent back to Mercury, and the only data that planetary astronomers have been able to collect of the ‘dark’, unobserved side has been through radar imaging. But now there is a spacecraft barreling headlong towards Mercury: MESSENGER! Launched in 2003, MESSENGER will do three flybys of Mercury during 2008 and 2009, and go into orbit around the planet in 2011. During MESSENGER’s first flyby, which takes place on January 14, we will have an opportunity to image a large swath of the heretofore un-photographed side of the planet. Join Mark ‘Indy’ Kochte of the MESSENGER mission as he takes you on a journey not out into the cosmos, but rather to one of the most elusive bodies in our Solar System, where not even the vaunted Hubble Space Telescope can peer…

Bio: Born and raised in northeast Ohio, Mark ‘Indy’ Kochte got his degree in astronomy from the Ohio State University in 1987. Shortly after this he joined the Hubble Space Telescope project at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, doing the acquisition, processing, and archiving of Hubble data. During his tenure on the mission he was afforded the opportunity to do some research in the studies of extrasolar planets, which uncovered the evidence of an atmosphere around a planet in a star system other than our own. He also was heavily involved in the grassroots project UMBRAS, a spacecraft design that would enable space telescopes to actually visually detect extrasolar planets. After 17 years of Hubble, in late summer of 2005 he moved on to join the FUSE (Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer) project as a Mission Planner, learning the immense challenges on how to deal with a satellite that had only one reaction wheel remaining. In November of 2006 he became a Payload Specialist on the MESSENGER Mission, a spacecraft currently heading to and scheduled to enter orbit around the planet Mercury in 2011. He is now fully embroiled in this project, feverishly preparing for the first Mercury flyby that will occur this very month on January 14, as well as the next flyby that will occur on October 6, 2008.

Not being an all-work/no-play kinda guy, in his spare time when not staring at the stars, Indy can be found out exploring the world we live in, from scaling the cliffs and mapping out caves of West Virginia, to mountain climbing in Colorado and Washington, and diving for fossilized Megalodon shark teeth in the Atlantic. No moss gathering under his feet!

R.F. Royce Precision Optical Components

Presentation Title: Almost Colorless - History and Development of the Achromatic Objective

Robert Royce is president of R.F. Royce - Precision Optical Components located in Northford, Connecticut. Having begun as an amateur telescope maker at 13 he went to Itek Laboratories after high school in 1965 where he worked on a variety of optics up to 60" in diameter. After college he spent 25 years as a commercial real estate analyst but always remained an amateur optician and telescope maker. In 1998 he entered the optics business full-time and began the present company. Since then he has worked for a variety of government and private customers in the optical industry as well as supplying amateur astronomers with specialty optics of all kinds.

Michelle Shinn

Presentation Title: "Cutting edge science - current research on the origin of Dark Matter"

Dr. Michelle Shinn, Chief Optical Scientist of the FEL Division, has been at Jefferson Lab since 1995. From 1996-1999, she led the design, procurement, and installation activities for the IR Demo free electron laser (FEL) optical cavity, transport and diagnostics, and from 1999 to 2006 performed the same duties on the Upgrade FEL, the world’s highest power tunable ultrafast laser. In her capacity as Chief Optical Scientist she sets the specification of the FEL optical systems, and analyzes their performance. She actively collaborates with a number of teams that use the FEL, and in particular, as been pursuing her own research on ablation of materials, and laser-induced damage of optical components. Before coming to Jefferson Lab, she was a physicist in the Laser Division at Lawrence Livermore National Lab (1984-1990), and Associate Professor of Physics at Bryn Mawr College (1990-1995).

Dr. Shinn has been an amateur astronomer since she and her brother received a 2.5” refractor when she was about 10, and has remained active ever since. Her interests are in observing and imaging deep sky objects.
She is a member of the Hampton Roads, Va club, the Back Bay Amateur Astronomers.

ANDY CLEGG – National Science Foundation
TOM CROWLEY – 40’ Dish Educator, Radio Astronomer
DR. JIM THIEMAN – NASA Goddard Space Center – Radio Jove
STAS EDEL – Introduction to CCD Astrophotography

JIMMY CARROL O’DELL – Original Rocket Boy Conducting Teenage Programs
BREANDA DAVISON, JANE LYNN SQURIES, CINDY SHAVER – Conducting Children’s Activities.
Kids Activities-Crater Making,
Star Lab Inflatable Planetarium, and more

BIKE & TRAIL RIDING, CASS SCENIC RAILROAD STATE PARK, SNOWSHOE RESORT, AND MANY OTHER ATTRACTIONS

Stellar Lineup of Guest Speakers

Prof. John E. Littleton

Theoretical Astrophysicist West Virginia University Department of Physics

R.F. Royce Precision Optical Components

Michelle Shinn

The Quest Continues!