Sam Miller
Oct. 13 is the beginning of the SaddleBrooke Skygazers Astronomy Club calendar year, and we are in for a treat this month. Dr Marcia Rieke, Principal Investigator for the near-infrared camera (NIRCam) on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), will join us with details of the JWST’s performance. This Sunday, Oct. 13, meeting will be at the DesertView Theater, 39900 S. Clubhouse Drive, at 7 p.m. In her presentation, Dr. Rieke will discuss her work on the NIRCam and how it is contributing to the overall success of the JWST, and also explain what we are learning from JWST data.
Artist’s depiction of the James Webb Space Telescope (courtesy of newscientist.com)
Marcia Rieke is a Regents Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. Her research interests include infrared observations of the center of the Milky Way and of other galactic nuclei and observation of the infrared sky at as faint a level as possible to study distant galaxies. These research interests have driven her to characterize and develop large-format, low-noise infrared detector arrays. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She came to the University of Arizona in 1976 as a postdoctoral fellow and has been there ever since. She has served as the Deputy Principal Investigator on NICMOS (the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer for the Hubble Space Telescope), the Outreach Coordinator for the Spitzer Space Telescope, and now is the Principal Investigator for the near-infrared camera for the James Webb Space Telescope. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and was recently named the Professor Elizabeth Roemer Endowed Chair in Astronomy. In 2023 she received the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal and the Catherine Wolfe Medal from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. In 2024 she was awarded the Gruber Cosmology Prize.
The SaddleBrooke Skygazers Astronomy Club meets monthly (and typically) on the second Sunday evening at 7 p.m. at the DesertView Theater. The next Star Parties are on Wednesday, Sept. 25, at 7 p.m. and Tuesday, Oct. 22, and Thursday, Nov. 21, at the softball field parking lot from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The public is welcome to both. Club and Star Party information can be obtained by emailing Sam Miller at [email protected].