Chandra Space Telescope to be topic of Quincy Astronomy Club meeting on Thursday

QUINCY — The Quincy Astronomy Club will present a live video talk titled “Exploring the Invisible Universe with Chandra Space Telescope.” The talk will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 30, in Room D022/023 at John Wood Community College.

According to NASA, the Chandra X-Ray Space Telescope is designed to detect X-ray emission from very hot regions of the universe such as exploded stars, clusters of galaxies and matter around black holes.

The lecturer will be Jen Lauer, an astronomer with the Smithsonian’s Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., which is the host of Chandra’s satellite operations, data processing and distribution. Lauer has worked on studying the data from Chandra since its launch in 1999. She has a bachelor’s degree in physics and a master’s in astronomy.

A short video about the shuttle launch of Chandra by Air Force Colonel Eileen Collins, the first to woman command a space mission, will be shown.

The Astronomy Club was formed by local amateur astronomers and seeks to teach, explore and expand minds about space and the universe. Lectures are held monthly, usually on the last Thursday of the month. The club holds monthly evening observing sessions as weather and observing conditions permit. Local amateurs with their telescopes guide the observing sessions.

For more information, contact Robert Weirather at 217-242-7366 or newideas21@comcast.net.