Monthly Meeting

Location: Streamed online.

This talk will focus on the history, technology, and impact of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation sponsored the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which began with a new telescope at Apache Point Observatory near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey was the most ambitious astronomical survey ever done. It has a 120 megapixel digital camera and two spectrographs. It was the first time an astronomy project collected data the way a high energy physics experiment does, and that is why the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory became involved. The author worked at Fermilab under John Peoples, the third director of SDSS, and John asked Larry to participate in some of the mechanical design of the telescope. Larry designed the pneumatic latches that held the $4 million dollar CCD camera and the spectroscopes to the bottom of the telescope. These latches needed to be 100% percent reliable. SDSS has created a three dimensional map of the sky with a million galaxies and quasars. Data collected by SDSS has provided insights into both dark matter and dark energy and continues to revolutionize astronomy. Where before only a select group of astronomers had access to previous astronomical surveys on glass plates, all of the SDSS data is available to anyone on the web.

Larry Bartoszek, an Aurora, IL resident, has a dual degree in Mechanical Engineering and Physics from the University of Illinois and is an Illinois Licensed Professional Engineer. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Welding Society, ASM International, the Chicago Society for Space Studies, the National Space Society, and the International Space Elevator Consortium. Larry worked at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory for 10 years from 1983 to 1993. In his work at Fermilab he was responsible for the design of a 150 million dollar hadron calorimeter weighing 4,000 tons and many other accelerator and detector projects..

This event is open to the public and free of charge.