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Paulo has a background in Electrical Engineering with MBA in Big Data and A.I. He has been an amateur astronomer since 9 years old and an active researcher in fields like finance, philosophy and astronomy. His observatory includes a 20in reflector on a HD32 Chronos mount, C14 with Hyperstar, Meade 12ACF with LHIRESIII spectroscope, RC10 for astroimaging, Meade 10 with a DSS7 spectroscope, FLT98 and Z71 APOs, Solar 120mm scope and some others.

He is going to talk about discoveries that were made in his observatory, software he developed for searching transient and asteroid/comets; he will also show some of his astrophotos.

Ron Miller is an author and illustrator specializing in space and astronomy. His work appears regularly in magazines such as Astronomy and Scientific American. He is also the author and illustrator of 70 books, including: Space Art: Starlog Photo Guidebook, Cycles of Fire: Stars, Galaxies, and the Wonder of Deep Space, The Grand Tour: A Traveler's Guide to the Solar System, The Art of Chesley Bonestell, The History Of Science Fiction, The Art of Space: The History of Space Art, from the Earliest Visions to the Graphics of the Modern Era, and many others. The most recent is Natural Satellites: The Book of Moons, which came out in 2021. He also designed a set of postage stamps celebrating the exploration of the solar system. The "Pluto Not Yet Explored" stamp is attached to the New Horizons spacecraft. It is now in the Guinness Book of World Records as having traveled further than any other stamp in history. He has also worked on motion pictures, probably most notably the David Lynch Dune.

This will be a very interactive session. Ron Miller will begin with an overview of his nearly 50-year career as a space artist, science fiction illustrator and author (which you can read about on Wikipedia) -- what he has done previously as well as his current focus. Then we'll open it up to questions, giving everyone a chance to ask about any aspect of his career you'd like to know more about.

Topic #2: Quantum Tunneling in Nuclear Fusion

Presenter: Arjun Meenashi Sundar

Arjun is 11.8 years old kid. He is in 6th grade and is very interested in Asteroid mining and Quantum Mechanics which are some of his lifetime passions. This is his current desired career path. He also has other interests, such as Visual Arts, playing guitar, and astrophotography, which is a very recent hobby.

Our March 2022 HAL Meeting is coming up Thursday, March 17th beginning at 7:00PM EST.
Note: This will be a Zoom meeting only. We will not be at Robinson Nature Center.

Our primary discussion topic will be "Filters". A panel of experts will discuss what filters to use for both observational astronomy and also for astro-imaging. They will share their knowledge answer all of your questions. Knowing what filters to use for what conditions and objectives will greatly enhance your night-out and solar experiences.

In addition we are going to discuss a new members only platform known as "Discord". Some of you have already been using our Discord server to share information and experiences. We are now ready to roll it out to the membership. And there is more, including our new YouTube Channel and sharing your recent picture submissions.

Some things are possible and some are not. That line between the possible and the impossible can tell us a lot about the way Nature works. In this talk we will ponder a few impossibilities, from the notorious (time travel, escape from a black hole) to the obscure (quantum cloning), using them to discover some of the physical principles that govern information in our quantum universe. As one might expect upon a journey into wonderland, our constant companion will be Alice -- thanks to her creator Lewis Carroll and her most famous illustrator Sir John Tenniel. Many surprises await beyond the looking-glass of the impossible.

Bio: Dr. Benjamin Schumacher is Professor of Physics at Kenyon College, where he has taught for 20 years. He received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from The University of Texas at Austin in 1990. Professor Schumacher is the author of numerous scientific papers and two books, including Physics in Spacetime: An Introduction to Special Relativity. As one of the founders of quantum information theory, he introduced the term qubit, invented quantum data compression (also known as Schumacher compression), and established several fundamental results about the information capacity of quantum systems. For his contributions, he won the 2002 Quantum Communication Award, the premier international prize in the field, and was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Besides working on quantum information theory, he has done physics research on black holes, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics. Professor Schumacher has spent sabbaticals working at Los Alamos National Laboratory and as a Moore Distinguished Scholar at the Institute for Quantum Information at California Institute of Technology. He has also done research at the Isaac Newton Institute of Cambridge University, the Santa Fe Institute, the Perimeter Institute, the University of New Mexico, the University of Montreal, the University of Innsbruck, and the University of Queensland.

Special presentation by Karen Yaffe Lottes on a historical site that is in our own backyard, the "International Latitude Observatory".

• International Latitude Observatory (Gaithersburg site)
• Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory (Facebook page)
• I am Gaithersburg, and I Measured the Stars – 120 Years Ago! (Facebook article based on magazine article below)
• article in inGaithersburg magazine (see page 8)

Karen Yaffe Lottes is an historian and museum educator at the Gaithersburg Community Museum where she creates informal educational opportunities in history and STEM at the museum and the Latitude Observatory. Her book In Search of Maryland Ghosts: Montgomery County was published in 2013 and she has written for In Gaithersburg Magazine, the Gazette, and other area publications.

Establishing conclusive evidence of hydration on solar system bodies is a key step in gaining a better understanding of our solar system's evolution and present composition. Oppia crater is a location on asteroid Vesta where a hydration feature has been detected but there is no direct evidence/reason for how it got there. This research project hoped to start answering this question.

Dominic is a senior at North County High School in Glen Burnie, MD who will be graduating next month. He has been a very active member of the Mock Trial team as well as the Astronomy Club throughout his high school career. Dominic will be attending college at UMBC right here in Baltimore and plans to study Physics with an emphasis in Astronomy.

William Balmer is a PhD student at the Johns Hopkins University and graduate research assistant at the Space Telescope Science Institute. He and his colleagues research the growth, evolution, and composition of giant planets, brown dwarfs, and very low mass stars using some of the world's largest optical and infrared observatories (WIYN 3.5m, Magellan 6.5m, Gemini 8.1m, VLT 8.2m, the VLT-Interferometry Array, and soon JWST). You can read more about their research and other projects online at https://astrowill.page.

The Great North American Solar Eclipse of 2024 will be Marylanders’ next readily accessible opportunity to witness firsthand one of the grandest of all astronomical phenomena, a total solar eclipse. As April 8th, 2024, is about 1 ½ years away and long-range planning is required for a successful eclipse experience, now is a great time to start getting ready. This talk will be a very interactive discussion that builds on the foundational eclipse material presented in Part 1 of this series at the June 2021 HAL general meeting (PDF slides / Zoom recording on YouTube ). Part 2 of this series will revisit The Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017: The Collective Experience of the Howard Astronomical League presentation to explore how HAL members and guests prepared for the eclipse, traveled to eclipse viewing sites, and dealt with difficulties that were encountered five years ago, and how these lessons might be applied to preparations for the 2024 eclipse.

Jim Johnson has been a HAL member since 2012. He is a retired Marine and a retired Federal civil servant, and has served HAL in many capacities over the ten years of his membership. Within two years of joining, he was a park keyholder hosting public, members only and impromptu star parties. Also at around this time he served on the observatory committee as plans to build HALO and install the Watson telescope were being finalized, and he participated in placing the observatory in service after the building was complete. Jim first served on the HAL Board as secretary during the 2015 and 2016 terms, and as president during the 2017 and 2018 terms. Under Jim’s leadership, the Board resolved to replace the Watson telescope with an instrument more appropriate for public outreach, and subsequently accept and install the Illig telescope in HALO. After moving off of the Board, he has continued to support HAL by serving as HAL Elections Committee chair in each election since 2019. Jim also enjoys leading an occasional HAL AstroSchool session or appearing as a guest speaker at a monthly meeting. His personal astronomy journey continues in the art of planetary and deep space object astrophotography, and he is a frequent contributor of astrophotos presented at the monthly meetings.

Get ready for Jupiter’s opposition next month with this presentation by HAL’s Jim Tomney on the ins & outs of observing the giant planet. As a Jovian enthusiast since getting his first 60mm refractor in the 60’s, Jim has spent hours behind the eyepiece sketching and photographing this fascinating planet. He will be sharing tips on viewing Jupiter that he has learned along the way and provide an overview of features the amateur observer might be able to see for a variety of instruments. There also will be a primer on getting into imaging Jupiter using video camera and open source software.

By day Jim is a software developer currently working as a contractor for the Social Security Administration. He is currently serving as HAL’s 2nd vice-president and has been a member of the club since 2014. As a long-time member of the Association of Lunar & Planetary Observers (ALPO) he is currently serving as their Assistant Coordinator for the Online section where he processes the images and sketches submitted by observers around the world. He also pens an astronomy blog, Shallow Skies, where he offers his take on the joys and challenges of exploring the night sky amid Bortle 8 light pollution.

TBD speaker, topic, description and bio.

Joseph Westlake. TBD topic description and bio.

Tentative Description: Dr. Feaga will present what we know about Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS), a distantly active comet that will come to perihelion in December, putting it into context with the comet population as a whole, how we are using TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) to study comets, and a look to the future for comet missions.