BSIG Winter Zoom Presentation – RSpec Spectroscopy – Featuring Tom Field

 The MAS invites everyone to the virtual Beginner’s Group Presentation using ZOOM.

Featured Speaker:   Tom Field
Topic: An Introduction to Astronomical Spectroscopy​

Synopsis: Even if you wanted to touch a star, they’re all impossibly distant. In spite of these great distances, astronomers have learned an enormous amount about stars. How? The most common method to study the stars is called spectroscopy, which is the science of analyzing the colorful rainbow spectrum produced by a prism-like device. Until recently, spectroscopy was too expensive and too complicated for all but a handful of amateurs. Today, though, new tools make spectroscopy accessible to almost all of us. You no longer need a PhD, dark skies, long exposures, enormous aperture … or a big budget! With your current telescope and FITS camera (or a simple web cam or even a DSLR without a telescope) you can now easily study the stars yourself. Wouldn’t you like to detect the atmosphere on Neptune or the red shift of a quasar right from your own backyard?!
This talk, with lots of interesting examples, will show you what it’s all about and help you understand how spectroscopy is used in research. Even if you are an armchair astronomer, understanding this field will enhance your understanding of the things your read and the night sky.

Biography: Tom Field was a Contributing Editor at Sky & Telescope Magazine for ten years. He is the founder of Field Tested Systems and the author of the RSpec software, which received the S&T “Hot Product” award. A pioneer in the field of amateur astronomical spectroscopy, Tom aims to demystify spectroscopy and make it accessible to all. He promises to open the door for you to this fascinating field!  You can visit the RSpec Spectroscopy website here: https://rspec-astro.com

Visit the B-SIG Discussion Forum for more information and any last minute changes.

This meeting will be held online using Zoom. If you would like to join us you will need use the following URL:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89329843146?pwd=qQqAJbhwibJjcxHHsqT7KRht0rhUfo.1

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