Friday, May 4 at 7 p.m. WSU physicist, Professor Emeritus Jerry Dunifer presented: Close encounters with great telescopes around the world.

During the past three years, I have made several trips to visit some of the major astronomical observatories at different sites around the World. This was done with three other individuals with similar interests. In the talk, I will describe the results of our visits to a variety of telescopes, including optical, radio, and gamma-ray telescopes. 

Our visits have ranged from the US mainland to the Big Island of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Chile, and the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa. Our trips have included two tours arranged by The Planetary Society and one tour arranged by Sky & Telescope Magazine. Our visits have included some of the largest telescopes on Earth as well as telescopes of historic interest. One of the visits was done in conjunction with the spectacular Starmus Festival, observing the 50th anniversary of mankind’s first orbital flight around the Earth. I will describe some of the features of the telescopes, the characteristics of the observing sites and the science carried out at the observatories. – Professor Jerry Dunifer

The Wayne State Planetarium is dedicated to the promotion of science. We are proud to feature a new series of free public lectures covering modern topics in science.