Next NOVAC Public Meeting
Sunday, November 8, 2026

Dr. Ali Bramson from Purdue University presents: “Ice on Mars: the Where, How, and Why” Although Mars is currently a dry, dusty planet, Mars does have abundant water — in solid form, as ice. Mars has extensive polar ice caps approximately the size of Greenland, as well as ancient glaciers and buried ice at sites […]

Nathan Walker from Oregon State University presents: “Compact Object Eruptions, How Black Holes and Neutron Stars Drive Explosions” This month, we’ll explore some of the most extreme objects in the Universe, supermassive black holes and neutron stars, and how they influence their cosmic neighborhoods and the Universe beyond. Our speaker this Sunday will be Nathan […]

Dr. Lisa Upton, Southwest Research Institute presents:   Solar Cycle 25: What We Predicted — and What We Have Learned: Predicting the solar cycle depends on understanding how the Sun’s large-scale magnetic field evolves from one cycle to the next. The Advective Flux Transport (AFT) model simulates how magnetic flux from active regions is transported across […]

Recent technological advancements are enabling huge improvements in the sensitivity of next-generation gamma-ray telescopes, which is well timed with the growing excitement for science uniquely enabled with observations of the high-energy sky. In this talk, Dr. Carolyn Kierans will present current development efforts towards next-generation gamma-ray telescopes, with a focus on the achievements through the NASA scientific balloon program. She will discuss the path towards answering long-standing questions in gamma-ray astrophysics.

Dan Zafra of Capture the Atlas presents:   Wide-field astrophotography Dan Zafra will share his approach to wide field photography, drawing on years of experience as a professional landscape astrophotographer and founder of Capture the Atlas, a leading online photography resource. His talk will cover the planning, shooting, and processing techniques he developed through deep immersion […]