Astronomy and Steward Observatory - The University of Arizona

Featured image: Magellan f/5 first light dithered Minicam images of NGC2808; field size ~ 5.4 arcmin, seeing ~ 0.5 arcsec. Credit: N. Caldwell, B. McLeod, A. Szentgyorgyi and the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Magellan f/5 Team.

Letter from the Editor Steward Observatory is pleased to present the May 2009 Newsletter! This month's issue includes more exciting news about Steward and the UA Astronomy Department. We encourage our readers to visit the news links below as quite a few additions have been made to the collection, including a series of articles on the Catalina Sky Survey's involvement with the discovery of near Earth asteroid 2008 TC3 that fell to Earth on October 7, 2008. We welcome and appreciate feedback. Please email comments and announcement submissions to newsletter@as.arizona.edu. We would be delighted to hear from you! Laura Forsyth Editor		Awards and Achievements Dave Arnett, Regents Professor and recipient of the 2009 Hans A. Bethe Prize, will present the prize talk at the April meeting of the American Physical Society on May 2-5 in Denver, Colorado. Adam Block, Public Observing Programs Coordinator at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter, was featured on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day website on April 14 with his image M101: The Pinwheel Galaxy. Xiaohui Fan, Associate Professor, has been named a 2009 Galileo Circle Fellow by the UA College of Science, “one of the highest honors bestowed upon faculty in the College.” Fan is currently completing a sabbatical (2008-2009) at the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. Lucy Ziurys, Professor of Astronomy and Chemistry and Director of the Arizona Radio Observatory, recently received the 2009 Graduate and Professional Student Council Outstanding Faculty Member Award. The Steward/NOAO Women's Science Forum was awarded a grant from the University of Arizona Commission on the Status of Women. The grant will be used both to continue their mentorship program which encourages undergraduate female astronomy majors to pursue a graduate degree in science; and to lead a workshop for middle school girls to foster their interest in science. See WSF website. University of Arizona Service Awards Each year the University of Arizona presents service awards to employees who have reached employment milestones with the University. The following Astronomy Department and Steward Observatory employees have been awarded 2009 UA Service Awards. Ten Years of Service James Bracken Brian Duffy Jeffrey Fookson Damon Jackson John Martin John Stansberry Peter Wehinger Ann Zabludoff Fifteen Years of Service Glenn Schneider Twenty Years of Service Charles Bridges Blain Olbert Christina Siqueiros Lee Ann Tinnin Jeffrey Urban Stephen Warner Steven West Twenty-five Years of Service Bruce Hille Edward Olszewski Robert Peterson John Ratje Russell Warner Susan Warner Have we missed anyone? Please let us know!
	May Calendar of Events This month at the Steward Observatory
	In the News Links to recent news articles featuring the department
	Video Collection Links to news videos featuring the department
	International Astronomy Meetings Courtesy of the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre
	Announcements The Giant Magellan Telescope GSMT Community Assessment Review was held on Monday April 27 in Pasadena, California. This external review is part of the 2010 Decadal Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics. The GMT1 Quarterly Review of the primary mirror production and metrology status is scheduled to take place on May 19 at the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab. The registration deadline for the first Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) Collaboration meeting is April 30 (after which registration will only be accepted as space permits). The meeting will be held in Princeton, July 27 - 29. Arizona is a full member of the SDSS-III Collaboration. As part of the April Newsletter, we announced the premier of ‘Around the World in 80 Telescopes’, a live 24-hour webcast featuring some of the most advanced telescopes in the world, including many Arizona Observatories. If you missed the webcast, links to each of the telescope segments will soon be available for viewing from the program webpage. In the meantime, we have obtained a copy of the Large Binocular Telescope segment (viewable with Windows Media Player) for your viewing pleasure, courtesy of Keith Page with Firehouse Pictures. See video. Steward Observatory celebrated its 86th birthday on April 23. Funded by the generous support of Lavinia Steward in 1916 and dedicated on April 23, 1923, the 36-inch Newtonian telescope was the first astronomical telescope to have been built using All-American made products. See more about the history of Steward Observatory. Opinion article by Dean of the College of Science, Joaquin Ruiz: Arizona needs to work hard to keep lead in science. Graduates Seniors graduating with Astronomy majors in May include: Michael Fenwick will be soon joining the workforce. He hopes to attend graduate school at a later date. Christopher Limbach, named Astronomy’s Outstanding Senior, plans to attend graduate school in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University to study applications of plasma physics to hypersonic flow and advanced spacecraft propulsion. Melissa Revelle, recipient of the Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award both for Astronomy and the College of Science, plans to do graduate work at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She aspires to be a NASA mission specialist for space-based research from the Shuttle or its successor. Patricia Wroblewski will be working for Raytheon Missile Systems. Seniors' research achievements will be recognized at the beginning of the April 30 colloquium. New Faces Four new graduate students have been admitted to the astronomy department this year: Tim Arnold, Ohio State University Vannessa Cheesbrough, University of Minnesota Russell Knox, University of Rochester / Oceanit Andrew Shevchuk, Pennsylvania State University