Stony Brook University’s Astronomy Club, in conjunction with the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) and Women in Physics and Astronomy (WPA), kicked off this year’s AstroFest Thursday, April 24 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Earth and Space Sciences Building.
“Today is our 14th annual [AstroFest and it’s] our biggest event of the year,” Lenin Nolasco, the president of the Astronomy Club and a senior majoring in physics, said. “It’s for anyone to come in — students, their friends [and] family — to just learn something about astronomy and science. It’s kinda just a public outreach event. We try to make it fun and entertaining,”
Attendees were encouraged to explore the event’s various exhibits and activities, including a real meteor core, an interactive model of a gravity well, a presentation on exoplanets, astronomy quizzes and more. After taking a look at the displays, attendees could also sit in for a panel discussion on electronically assisted astronomy, a technique that uses cameras to capture real-time images of celestial objects.
Evan Iervolino, a junior double majoring in geology and earth and space sciences who serves as the Astronomy Club’s secretary, shared details about the process of planning the event.
“The decision on what tables will be featured — namely, the experiments we conduct — is made with the goal of explaining complex astronomical ideas. Whether in the realm of astronomy, astrophysics, or techniques used to study the unknown above, our experiments are designed to make these concepts accessible to everyone, even if they don’t have a [science, technology, engineering and math] background.”
AstroFest also served as an opportunity to become familiar with the tools that astronomy majors use in their day-to-day coursework, such as the transit method, a process of calculating the size and distance of an exoplanet.
“The way the transit method works, because that’s what we use here at Stony Brook, [is] basically, we look at a star and we look at the brightness of the star. As a planet [passes] in front of that star, we will be able to slightly detect how different the brightness is when the planet moves across, which potentially tells us how big the planet is, and how potentially far away it is,” Nicholas Esteves, a member of the Astronomy Club and a junior majoring in astronomy said. “This is actual data that was taken [at] about March 11, where we had students go into the observatory and measure the transit of said planet.”
NSPB and WPA also tabled at the event, promoting their next meetings and quizzing attendees on astronomy knowledge.
“All of these clubs [are] connected with each other,” Shawna Rudder, the president of NSBP’s Stony Brook chapter and a senior majoring in physics, said. “We’re trying to have a [connection] with all the different physics and astronomy clubs on campus.”
The event also featured an exhibit from the Vanderbilt Museum, marking the first time that the museum has had a booth at AstroFest.
Charlie Eder, an astronomy outreach coordinator for the Vanderbilt Museum, explained many Stony Brook alumni have come to work at the museum, allowing for connections between the institutions.
“There have been plenty of Stony Brook alumni who have come to work at the museum, so we’ve got that connection going for a few years,” Eder said. “We’ve had astronomy club members come on trips [to] the Vanderbilt Museum. We’ve done shows for them on museum property.”
The Astronomy Club also brought in David Barnett, the program and technology coordinator for Avalon Nature Preserve’s Observatories, to hold a discussion about electronically assisted astronomy.
“It is a form of observational astronomy, where a user takes a camera, in lieu of the eyepiece, and leverages the software in the camera to show structures that are normally invisible in the eyepiece. It’s extremely effective, especially here in Stony Brook where light pollution is dominant, and it allows the end user to see things that it’d be very difficult to see otherwise,” Barnett said.
AstroFest visitors were intrigued by the wide variety of exhibits that centered around different astrological topics.
“I’ve never been to an AstroFest before. I only knew about it because my Chinese class is down the hall,” Brandon Wong, a junior majoring in economics said. “It seems like a fun event, I feel like it definitely draws a crowd.”
Nolasco hopes that the Astronomy Club will be able to expand next year’s AstroFest, improving their exhibits and casting a wider net of clubs in attendance.
“I would hope that [the next e-board] would be able to maintain the quality of the [event, demonstrations, posters and hands-on activities] that we’ve [done], and try to expand as well. [We’d like to] have more diversity and new tables and different clubs as well, maybe even have more [diverse] clubs and maybe have some guest speakers from outside,” he said.
