Celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the Telescope
During the 2009-2010 academic year, the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first astronomical use of his telescope, Agnes Scott College is hosting “Project Galileo: Revealing Hidden Worlds”. This year-long series of events will explore Galileo's complex life and innovative work, and it will help us engage the challenges we all face when pushing the boundaries of exploration in the quest for knowledge.
Agnes Scott invites students and the community to engage in interdisciplinary discussions that remain crucially important for our society today—from the ethical implications of scientific discovery to the need for improved communication between scientists and non-scientists, to the current and future professional role women play within the sciences.
PROJECT GALILEO EVENTS & PROGRAMS
Alan Lightman to visit Agnes Scott College
Professor Alan Lightman, celebrated novelist and physicist and author of this year's Common Reading text Einstein's Dreams, will be visiting Agnes Scott College from October 7-9, 2009, to meet with students and faculty, visit classes, and give a series of talks. He will discuss the connections between science and art, speak about his work with the Harpswell Foundation, (dedicated to empowering a new generation of women leaders in the developing world), and answer questions about Einstein's Dreams.
Common Reading for Fall 2009 – Einstein’s Dreams
Einstein’s Dreams is a series of meditations on imagined worlds in which time operates differently than it does in our own. The author, Alan Lightman, a professor of physics at M.I.T., reflects on the nature of time by imagining what Einstein might have dreamt while working out his theory or relativity. As readers, we share Einstein’s dreams, which Lightman writes as a series of fables about places where time behaves quite differently. In one of these dreams, time slows with altitude, causing the wealthy to build stilt homes on mountaintops, seeking eternal youth and scorning the swiftly aging poor folk below. Eventually forgetting how they got there and why they subsist on “all but the most gossamer food,” the higher-ups at length “become thin like the air, bony, old before their time”. All of these dreams are equally provocative, teasing readers into thought and discussion, which is the goal of Agnes Scott’s Common Reading program.
Agnes Scott Ethics Program: Extraterrestrial Ethics
This year, our annual series on ethics will feature the programs "Values and Ethics in Space" by Holmes Rolston III (the University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State University); "Space Exploration and Environmental Sustainability on Earth" by William K. Hartmann (Scientist, Author, Artist, Planetary Science Institute); "The Ethics of Exploration: Planetary Astronomy" by Brother Guy Consolmagno (Astronomer, the Vatican); and "Extraterrestrial Searches and Planetary Protection" by Margaret Race (Astrobiologist, SETI Institute).
Martha Ackmann and the Mercury 13
Martha Ackmann will be visiting Agnes Scott College on Thursday, November 5, 2009, for a lecture, reception and book signing featuring her award-winning book Mercury 13. In the early 1960s during the space race and while the first men were flying rockets to the moon, thirteen women pilots trained hard to become the first American female astronauts, often surpassing the test results of male counterparts. Dynamic women who sometimes sacrificed jobs and marriages for a chance to participate in the country's race against the Soviet Union, their struggle paved the way for today's women astronauts.
Bradley Observatory Open House Series
Monthly speakers come from a variety of ancient disciplines including astronomy, architecture, classical studies, history and theology. This 2009-10 academic year, we'll be hosting speakers from Agnes Scott College, the Vatican Observatory, the Atlanta Astronomy Club, and the Georgia State University Honors Program.
Galileo by Bertolt Brecht, English Version by Charles Laughton
Stars align and worlds collide in this masterpiece of modern drama. History's most famous physicist and astronomer is rendered by the twentieth century's most influential playwright in an adaptation by an Oscar winning star of theatre, film and television. As Galileo presents surprising new discoveries about the heavens his discoveries both spur the imagination and subject him to charges of heresy. Branded as an enemy of the Church he finds himself caught between truth and authority. He must choose between his life and his life's work, between conscience and convenience. Blackfriars, Atlanta's oldest continuously performing theatre troupe, performs this exciting work in a bold new production.
October 30-November 1, & November 6-8
Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm, Sundays at 2:00pm
“From the Earth to the Universe” Astronomical Images
A collection of astronomical images now installed at Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport highlight some of the most dramatic views of our Universe. The images represent the incredible variety of astronomical objects that are known to exist─planets, comets, stars, nebulae, galaxies and the clusters in which they congregate─and will be exhibited in numerous locations throughout the world in 2009. The Atlanta Airport exhibit was dedicated on May 4, 2009.
“100 Hours of Astronomy” Celebration
The 100 Hours of Astronomy Cornerstone Project is a worldwide event consisting of a wide range of public outreach activities including live demonstrations at science centers, research observatory webcasts, and sidewalk astronomy events. One of the key goals of 100 Hours of Astronomy is to have as many people as possible look through a telescope as Galileo did for the first time 400 years ago. This event will be co-sponsored by the AAC and have member telescopes in addition to live music by space music artist John Serrie.