Full Moon Festival Astronomy Talks

For many cultures across East Asia, family and friends come together for the mid-autumn Full Moon with festivities, delicious food, and good company. The Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, U-M Astronomy, the Nam Center for Korean Studies, and the Center for Japanese Studies invite you to the Judy & Stanley Frankel Detroit Observatory for a special celebration of the Mid-Autumn Full Moon. Mooncakes will be available to all in-person registrants, courtesy of the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies.

Talk 1 - Much About Moons! (Logan Pearce, ELT Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Astronomy)

Sail through a tour of the neatest moons in the solar system, highlighting the specialness of Earth’s Moon. Visit fascinating moons like Io, Titan, Europa, Enceladus, and even Pluto. We will then explore detections of moons around other planets outside our solar system.

Talk 2 - Wild Thoughts on Our Moon: Listening to the Universe from the Dark Side (Bingcheng Jin, Graduate Student, Department of Astronomy)

We will journey through history to explore humanity’s ancient fascination with the Moon and consider one of the wildest ideas in science history: building observatories on the Moon. Proposed lunar-based observatories would be shielded from Earth’s radio chatter, allowing us to hear the first whispers of the cosmos. We will also discuss the social concerns of building on the Moon, including discussion with the audience.

If you’d like to attend virtually, please register for the Zoom Webinar at: https://myumi.ch/NXVPz