Math Department to host star gazing event
by Hilary McNamara, associate editor

South Plains College students will get a chance to gaze at some heavenly bodies during a Star Gazing on April 4.

Hosted by the Math and Engineering Department at SPC, the event will be held at 7:30 p.m. on the intramural soccer field on the south side of the Levelland campus, weather permitting.

The event will begin with a solar viewing before sunset. Afterwards there will be views of the night sky after dark. Members of the South Plains Astronomy Club and the Museum of Texas Tech University will set up telescopes.

Binoculars and lawn chairs are welcome. Parking is available in the parking lot of the Math Building.

Earlier on April 4, Dr. Rebecca Koopman will deliver a lecture on “So You Want to be an Astronomer: Adventures in the Life of an Extragalactic Astronomer,” at 9 a.m. in the Sundown Room in the Student Center.

Dr. Koopman is part of the Harlow Shapley Visiting Lectureship Program of the American Astronomical Society. The program brings professional astronomers to colleges for a two-day look into modern astronomy and astrophysics. All events are free and open to the public.

This program is in honor of Harlow Shapley, who was the director of the Harvard College observatory. He founded the Harvard graduate program in astronomy and helped established the scale of the Milky Way and the location of the Sun in its outskirts.

Dr. Koopman is an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Union College in Schenectady, New York. Her research focuses on the environmental interactions that galaxies experience in clusters of galaxies. She has also been involved in establishing chances for undergraduate research.

The events will begin on April 3 with a lecture at 7 p.m. the Moody Planetarium in Lubbock. Dr. Koopman will talk about her challenges and experiences as a astronomer. She will also give advice for those interested in scientific or technical careers.

The lecture on April 3 will be preceded by a Laser Light Show, beginning at 6 p.m. admission to the Laser Light Show is $2 for adults and $1 for students.