- This event has passed.
BSIG December 2025 Presentation – Featuring David Falkner
The MAS invites everyone to the virtual Beginner’s Group Presentation using ZOOM.
Featured Speaker: David Falkner – MAS Member and NASA Ambassador
Topic: Titan and the Dragonfly Mission
Synopsis: The presentation will focus on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and NASA’s ambitious Dragonfly mission to explore it. The presentation will begin with Titan’s discovery, and what we learned through telescopic observations. I will then talk about the discoveries by Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and the Cassini/Huygens mission. I will talk briefly about Ingenuity, the first successful extraterrestrial aircraft before talking about the Dragonfly spacecraft and its astrobiology mission.
Biography: Dave has been a life-long amateur astronomer. He first became interested in astronomy as a pre-teen when his father took him to a show at the Holcolmb Planetarium in Indianapolis. He became hooked and has had an interest in astronomy ever since. After retiring from the US Navy, Dave settled in Minnesota and became an active member of the Minnesota Astronomical Society (MAS). He has served as its President from 2011 – 2014, 2019 – 2020, and Secretary from 2023 – 2024. As a member of the MAS, Dave enjoyed performing astronomical outreach often speaking to groups at libraries, nature centers and schools. Dave is a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador where he educates the public about space, space exploration and NASA missions. Along with his outreach activities Dave has taught beginning Astronomy classes at a local community college and has published three books.
This meeting will be held online using Zoom. If you would like to join us you will need use the following Zoom link.
Zoom URL: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85959083361?pwd=iPlZMbb9tz6MvMCM6I83nsm3Bms8uF.1
Meeting ID: 859 5908 3361
Passcode: 957207
We will open up this link about 10 minutes before the event starts.
You can probably hear best with a headset but your computer’s speaker and microphone will also work.
Dial-in Phone Number
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
In order to ensure the most success we are asking everyone to follow a couple of rules:
1. Don’t turn on your camera – it sucks up bandwidth and we really don’t need to see you.
2. Keep your microphone muted until you are prompted during a question and answer session during the presentation. This will cut down background noise substantially.
3. You can request to ask a question in the chat area in Zoom and wait to be prompted by the moderator.
We hope you can join us.
Clear skies!
Suresh Sreenivasan
MAS Beginner’s Coordinator
