2024
- November 20, 2024: The Schueller Observatory will host the Girl Scouts on Wednesday, Nov 20 from 6 - 8 p.m..
- July 15, 2024: UMass Lowell in the News: Westport Journal: "How hospitable is space to habitability of other planets?".
- July 15, 2024: 8 first-year and 8 high school students visited the LoCSST MASTS lab. They participated in a program called RAMP which Associate Dean Chandra runs. Students were given tours and discussed their research projects.
- May 10, 2024: Professor Cohen gave an interview to WBUR on “Massachusetts could see the Northern Lights this weekend”.
- April, 2024: On April 27, Prof. Silas Laycock manned a table and talked with prospective students about the Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology (LoCSST) and space science at the Northern Essex Community College student fair.
Julie Sage interacting with children and their families at Burlington Public Library
- April, 2024: On April 6, Undergraduate student in Physics (with minors in mathematics and theater arts!), Julie Sage, presented information about the April 8 solar eclipse to children and the families at Burlington Public Library and conducted hands-on learning projects with the children including solar eclipse flip books, cereal box solar eclipse viewers and paper plate masks for extra protection around their solar glasses. A big thank you to Julie for volunteering her time and knowledge!
Julie Sage and LoCSST student volunteers helping kids build a device to view eclipse using a cereal box
- April, 2024: On April 6, Julie Sage and other LoCSST student volunteers travelled to the Burlington Public Library to present a space program including introduction to the solar eclipse, viewing of 3D models, and children did a related craft. There was also a solar scope outside for viewing. See the Solar Eclipse Prep for Kids calendar.
Professors Cohen and Cook set up the UMass Lowell (UML) Booth at the “Grad/REU Fair” during AAS.
- January, 2024 American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting
Professor Tim Cook and Physics graduate student Sayantan Bhattacharya engaged prospective students with their expertise and enthusiasm at the UML Booth during the 243rd AAS Meeting.
- January, 2024: Prof. Tim Cook and Physics grad student Sayantan Bhattacharya spoke with potential students at the UML Booth at the “Grad/REU Fair” held during the 243rd AAS Meeting.
Prof. Laycock and undergraduate student Liam Neeley with the Sunspotter
2022
- March 26, 2022: STEM Fair
Graduate student, Thad Potter, and Liam Neeley showing the fabric of spacetime activity
LoCSST participated in the Girls Scout STEM fair, held at UMass Lowell on Saturday March 26, 2022.
There were up-to 200 scouts attending during the day, and all of the activities were about space exploration!
Graduate student Ankur Roy explaining the Sunspotter to the visitors
Our activity station was scheduled in two time periods 8:30-9:15 a.m. and 11:40 a.m. - 12:35 p.m.
Prof. Ramanpreet Kaur showing space related activity cards to girl scout visitors
The Fabric of Space-Time (lots of spandex).
Space Weather Balloon launch (helium balloon carrying a video camera on a parachute).
Graduate students Sayantan and Ananya showing the solar telescope to visitors
Observing the Sun with Solar Telescopes
Some members of LoCSST astronomy group who participated in the STEM fair
- March 26, 2022 : Professors Laycock and Kaur (and teams) had tables at the STEM fair at Weed Hall .Activities/tables were include Solar telescopes, Space-time fabric and Weather balloon.
- March 16, 2022: The Schueller Observatory held a public open night from 6-9 p.m.
- Hear all about Pulsars with graduate student, Ankur Roy followed by “What’s up in the night sky this month” which will be presented by undergraduate student, Liam Neely (Coburn Hall 140). Following the talks, the observatory will be open until 9 p.m. (sunset will be 6:51pm).
- Astronomers were on hand to offer views through the telescopes (weather permitting) throughout the evening. Send any questions to observatory@uml.edu. Follow us on Facebook @umlastronomy.
- Hear all about Pulsars with graduate student, Ankur Roy followed by “What’s up in the night sky this month” which will be presented by undergraduate student, Liam Neely (Coburn Hall 140). Following the talks, the observatory will be open until 9 p.m. (sunset will be 6:51pm).
- February 9, 2022: The Schueller Observatory held a public open night from 6-9 p.m.
- 6-6:30 p.m. –"What’s in the Sky"? and “Gravitational Lensing and Black Holes” by Nick Sorabella (Coburn 255)
- 6-9 p.m. - The observatory open.
- Astronomers were on hand to offer views through the telescopes (weather permitting) throughout the evening.
Park in the South Campus (900 Broadway) Lot (after 3 p.m. no charge).
Please note: masks are required for all indoor portions of the event.
Send any questions to observatory@uml.edu.
Follow us on Facebook @umlastronomy.
This is a Free Event open to the public. All ages are welcome!
Send any questions to observatory@uml.edu.
Follow us on Facebook @umlastronomy.
This is a Free Event open to the public. All ages are welcome!
2021
- October 7, 2021 : The Schueller Observatory will hold a public open night from 6-9 p.m. Email observatory@uml.edu for more details or to reserve a spot.
- October 3, 2021 : On Oct. 3 from 9 a.m. until noon, Professors Ofer Cohen and Tim Cook, along with grad student Thad Potter, participated in the UMass Lowell (UML) Open House at the Tsongas Center. A video of the NASA PICTURE-C launch was on continuous loop and the UML student built NASA SPACE HAUC model was on display.
- September 23, 2021 : The Schueller Observatory’s first viewing event open to UMass Lowell students, faculty and staff was held on September 23 from 6-9 p.m. Dozens came out to see the telescopes and to hear about what's happening in astronomy at UMass Lowell. The plan is to hold public events the first Thursday of every month beginning October 7. Free parking is available starting after 3 p.m. in the Broadway Lot of UMass Lowell on south campus. A virtual campus map is available to help locate parking
2020
- January 15, 2020 : Several LoCSST students and faculty participated in the UMass Lowell Field Trip Day for grades 1-6 at the Tsongas Center.
2019
- March 12, 2019 : Susanna Finn gave a presentation at the Chenery Middle School “Star Party” in Belmont, Mass.
Samuel Fingerman, a staff scientist in LoCSST and with the UMass Lowell Department of Physics and Applied Physics, is shown here at BAE Systems in Nashua, N.H. March of 2017, testing the control software for the instrument for the MISTIC WINDS project.
2017
- Dec. 1, 2017 : Mahboubeh Asgari-Targhi, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, “Identifying the heating mechanisms in the solar atmosphere and their observational signatures”
- Nov. 3, 2017 : TzuYang Yu, UMass Lowell Civil Engineering– Ground Penetrating Radar and Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging for Infrastructure Sensing
- Oct. 27, 2017 : Paul Withers, BU Astronomy Dept., “New method to detect ionospheres in planets and exoplanets”
- Oct. 20, 2017 : Edward Deluca, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, "Storage of magnetic energy in the corona: models, simulations and the next set of observational constraints"
- Oct. 6, 2017 : Laura Kreidberg, Harvard ITC – “Exoplanet Atmosphere Characterization, Present and Future”
- Sept. 22, 2017 : Sarah Ballard, Torres Postdoctoral Fellow Postdoctoral Scholar, MIT Kavli Institute, “There Must Be a Better Way: Leveraging the Thousands of Known Systems to Inform Exoplanet Follow-up”
- Sept. 15, 2017 : Anna Rosen, Ph.D., Einstein and ITC Fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics - “An Unstable Truth: How Massive Stars get their Mass”
Sreejeth Aickara Gopinathan presenting.
- Jan 9, 2017 : Sreejeth Aickara Gopinathan from India visited the lab and presented a seminar "Balloon experiments and small satellites for UV astronomy"
Nobel prize winner and MIT physicist Rainer Weiss, Ph.D. and UMass Lowell graduate student Glenn Howe.
2016
- Nov. 30, 2016 : Distinguished visitor Rainer Weiss, Ph.D., met with researchers from the Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology and toured the laboratory. Here Weiss is pictured with Physics graduate student Glenn Howe after discussing flight plan strategies for the upcoming PICTURE-C exoplanet imaging mission.
Image by Susanna Finn
Members of the SPACE HAUC management / systems team give a small technical presentation to our friends at Boston University.
From left to right: Susanna Finn, Chuck Barbon, Alex Casperson, Dat Le, and Eric Carey.
- Nov. 18, 2016 : Prof. Brian Walsh , Prof. Josh Semeter (Electrical & Computer Engineering) and 6 students from the Boston University visited to learn about our SPACE HAUC project.
- Oct. 14, 2016 : Prof. Brian Walsh , Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Boston University presented "Exoplanet Science in the the Muirgead Group at BU: Low-Mass Stars, Cold Gas Giants and Novel Instrumentation"
- Oct 12, 2016 : Karl Stapelfeldt , Ph.D., Chief Scientist of the NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA presented "Imaging Protoplanetary Disks with the Hubble Space Telescope"
- Aug. 17-18, 2016 : Andrew Stephan, Ph.D., and Scott Budzien, Ph.D., from NRL (LITES/Group C Science Meeting) visit the lab.
- July 21, 2016 : Joseph Robichaud, Jim Guregian, and Jay Schwartz from L-3 presented technology development activities, future programs and needs.
- June 27, 2016 : High school students and faculty from Portland, Maine visited LoCSST for a tour, presentation, and hand-on projects with Prof. Laycock and his team including graduate Kathleen Oram from L-3!
- June 21, 2016 : Philip Muirhead , Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Boston University presented "Exoplanet Science in the Muirhead Group at BU: Low-mass stars, Cold Gas Giants and Novel Instrumentation"
- June 21, 2016 : Julie Skinner , Ph.D., Postdoctoral Associate at Boston University's Institute for Astrophysical Research presented "Magnetic Activity of Nearby White Dwarf-M Dwarf Binaries"
- March 14, 2016 : Krzysztof Kamiński, Ph.D., and Monika Kamińska, Astronomical Observatory of Adam Mickiewicz University , Poznan Poland presented "Small telescopes - wide spectrum of possibilities"
2015
- July 9, 2015 : Andrew Stephan,Ph.D., Naval Research Lab presented "Airglow and Aeronomy Research from the International Space Station".
- July 8, 2015 : Craig Hardgrove presented "The Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map) CubeSat Mission".
- May 22, 2015 : Alexa Halford , Ph.D., from Dartmouth College presented "BARREL: Observations of Radiation Belt Loss with Balloons".
- May 5, 2015 : Anne Marinan from MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics presented "Imaging in Miniature: A CubeSat-Scale Optical Platform for Wavefront Sensing and Deformable Mirror Characterization"