Chicago Astronomical Society
    
Chicago
Astronomical
Society
...to promote the interest in, and advance the knowledge and understanding of
astronomy, the most ancient and the noblest of the physical sciences.
The next meeting of the Chicago Astronomical Society will be on
 Saturday, April 12, 2025
 at the
Cernan Earth and Space Center.
Meeting Agenda:
Speaker: Jim Hopkins
Topic: Planet Quest
About the Presentation:
This lecture will be about Exoplanets and will also address the assumptions made in the search for life. Exoplanets will be defined and the methodology of finding them explained. The role of Earth-based telescopes as well as those in orbit will be presented. What is life and how rare or common is it? These questions drive our search and will be presented. The Trappist system in Capricornus will be used as a case study.
About our Speaker:
Jim graduated from Eastern Illinois studying geology, physics, meteorology, and astronomy. He split his college experience with 3 years in the paratroops, serving in Alaska, and with both the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions. He began a 30-year teaching career at Naperville North High School and added 28 more years of teaching Astronomy and Meteorology at C.O.D. and Joliet Junior College in summers and in the evenings. Jim enjoys star parties in the Midwest having visited Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, and Oklahoma many times. Jim has conducted outreach with 14 telescopes since 1973. His outreach list is extensive and includes schools, churches, park districts, forest preserves, and retirement homes. He has given talks on various subjects almost everywhere he travels. His favorite telescope currently is a Sky Watcher 150mm triplet refractor that gives sharp views of planets, open clusters, and multiple star systems. Jim continues to do outreach with the Naperville Astronomical Association