Special Guest Lecturer:
Steven Bellavia
Vera Rubin Telescope & LuSEE
at Night Lunar Radio Telescope
Brookhaven National Laboratory continues to be at the forefront of astronomical and cosmological research. Two of the most recent projects are the camera for the Vera Rubin Telescope (formerly called LSST) and the LuSEE at Night lunar radio telescope.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which uses the largest and most sophisticated astronomy camera ever built, will conduct a 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) to answer some of the most pressing questions about the structure and evolution of the universe and the objects in it.
The Lunar Surface Electromagnetic Explorer at Night (LuSEE-Night), a NASA/DOE collaboration, is a path-finder mission to land a radio telescope on the far side of the moon. It will investigate the feasibility of detecting the very faint radio waves emitted during the Dark Ages, a previously unobserved era in cosmic history holding clues to the origin and evolution of our Universe.
About the Speaker
Steven Bellavia, Principal Mechanical Engineer,
Brookhaven National Laboratory; Amateur Astronomer & Telescope Maker;
Assistant Adjunct Professor of Astronomy & Physics at Suffolk County Community College
Read more >
An amateur astronomer and telescope maker, Steven Bellavia is an aerospace engineer who worked for Grumman Aerospace with the Thermodynamics Group of the Space Division. He had a key role in developing a nuclear rocket engine, and performed the analysis, design and fabrication of the micro-gravity liquid droplet radiator that flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-029.
Steve has been at Brookhaven National Laboratory since 1992 and is the principal mechanical engineer for the camera on the Vera Rubin (formerly called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, LSST). Prior to that, he was doing research and engineering for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory.
Steve has been recognized for the discovery of the Clair Obscure effect "Lunar L", which is described in the December 2018 issue of Astronomy magazine.
Steve is an assistant adjunct professor of astronomy and physics at Suffolk County Community College and the Astronomy Education and Outreach Coordinator at the Custer Institute and Observatory in Southold, New York.
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Previous Speakers >
Previous Guest Lecturers
• Carlton (Tad) Pryor, Rutgers Univ.,
Astronomy Professor; Researcher
at Southern African Large Telescope
• Yervant Terzian, Cornell University,
Tisch Distinguished University
Professor, Director of NASA NY
Spacegrant
• Dr. Jason Hofgartner, Liquids on
Titan: Rain, Rivers, Lakes,
Seas, and an Ocean
• Dr. Shana Tribiano, The History
of Astronomy
• Dr. Marc Favata, The Search for
Black Holes & Gravitational Waves
• Dr. Allyson Sheffield, Galactic
Collisions: The Role of Mergers
in Galaxy Formation
• Charles Liu, Galaxies & Our
Cosmic Future
• Dr. Heidi Hammell, Exploring the
Giant Planets
• Alan MacRobert, SETI: The Real
Facts About Searching for ET
• Linda Zimmerman, Astro X Files
• Ken Kremer, Mars, Saturn,
Comets & Beyond
• Roger Obstbaum, Earth vs. Venus:
Global Warming & the Runaway
Greenhouse Effect
• Carter Emmart, Virtual Reality:
Creating a 3D Digital Universe
• Arne Henden
• Mary Lou West
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Event Schedule
7 pm – Hors d’oeuvres/Cash Bar
8 pm – Buffet Dinner with Four
Premium Meal Selections
9 pm – Door Prizes & Lecture begins,
Coffee & Dessert
Teens Welcome!
• Sorry – No children under age 12
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