What's happening?

• Summer 2007 - The Macalester Observatory is open for public observing on Tuesday nights.  For more information, check the Macalester Observatory website.

• Fall 2006 - The Macalester Observatory is open for public observing on Thursday Nights.  For more information, check the Macalester Observatory website.

• Summer 2006 - Maggie Buttermore ('06) worked with Dr. Barton Pritzl on searching for RR Lyrae stars in M33.  Anne Sweet ('07) worked on an REU in Hawaii.  Anna Dupay ('06) worked on an REU in Ohio.

• Spring 2006 - Congratulations to James Johnson, Reid Lustig, Dylan Semler, Maggie Buttermore, and Anna Dupay! They are all graduating this year from the physics and astronomy department this year. Good luck in your future endeavors!

• Spring 2006 - Anne Sweet ('07) is spending her spring working on an REU at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Here are some pictures of Anne by the mirror, inside the dome, and a picture of the Moon over the observatory. Anne will working on another REU in Hawaii over the summer.

• Fall 2005 - Visiting Professor Barton Pritzl had an observing run at the Gemini North Observatory in Hawaii to detect RR Lyrae variable stars in the galaxy M33. Click here to visit Barton's website for more information.

• Summer 2005 - Charles Baldner ('05), Jim Johnson ('06), and Anne Sweet ('07) worked on two projects to measure stellar abundances from high resolution spectra on stars in dwarf galaxies. Preliminary results were given at the Winter 2006 American Astronomical Society Meeting. Click here to view their poster.

• Spring & Summer 2005 - In the spring, Dylan Semler ('06) worked on determining light pollution near the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory for an REU at CTIO. In the summer, he had an REU at the University of Wyoming observing sources that have excesses in the infrared. Dylan presented these results at the Winter 2006 American Astronomical Society Meeting for both his work at CTIO and at Wyoming.

• Summer 2004 found Trevor Mendel ('05), Dylan Semler ('06), Reid Lustig ('06), Jon Vermedhal (grad student from the University of Minnesota), and Dr. Bart Pritzl (post-doc at Macalester) working very hard in the DAC and the Observatory. Click here to see what the students were up to.

• Jon Trevor Mendel ('05) graduated in May 2005 with a major in Physics with an Astronomy Emphasis. Trevor is pursuing a graduate degree in astronomy at the University of Swinburne in Australia. Good luck Trevor!

• Charles Baldner ('05) graduated in May of 2005 with a major in Physics with an Astronomy Emphasis. Charles researched the chemical abundances in dwarf galaxies with Prof. Kim Venn during the summer before heading off to Yale for graduate school in astronomy. Good luck Charles!

• Leah Simon graduated in May of 2003 with majors in Physics with Astronomy Emphasis. She went to do research at the National Solar Observatory for the summer, and is now starting graduate school in Astronomy at the University of Florida, Gainsville. Good luck Leah!