EP14 - Sunday, 9th August 2020 7:30pm BST - The Short Long History of Citizen Science in Astronomy by Chris Lintott

[Grant]

This Sunday we have the absolute pleasure of being joined by Chris Lintott! We are very excited about this and Chris wants to give a talk a bit different to the norm which should be a great fit for us: 'The short long history of citizen science in astronomy'. I think you will agree, there is no one more qualified to talk about citizen science and astronomy 🙂

Chris is a professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford, where he is also a research fellow at New College, working on topics from galaxy evolution, transient detection and machine learning. As Principal Investigator of the Zooniverse, he leads a team who run the world’s most successful citizen science projects, allowing more than a million people to discover planets, transcribe ancient papyri or explore the Serengeti. A passionate advocate of the public understanding of science, he is best known as co-presenter of the BBC’s long running Sky at Night program. His book, ‘The Crowd and the Cosmos’, is now available from Oxford University Press.

‘Citizen Science’, through projects like Galaxy Zoo and Planet Hunters which ask volunteers to sort through data, is more popular and productive than ever before. But amateur astronomers have been making contributions to science for centuries. In this talk, which will include stories of a p**ed-off Welshman, a stoical Prussian and at least one story about penguins, Galaxy Zoo founder Chris Lintott (BBC Sky at Night) will talk about the historical foundations of citizen science, what can be done now - and what opportunities will exist in the future.

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP14 - Sunday, 9th August 2020 7:30pm BST - The Short Long History of Citizen Science in Astronomy by Chris Lintott
Time: Aug 9, 2020 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/93821926723?pwd=V0hBTytNaWRncFliM0k4VCtYRE1mUT09

Meeting ID: 938 2192 6723
Passcode: 825115

[barkis]

Great capture for us. I like  Professor  Chris. Lintott, and his work has earned him world wide respect.
These weekend treats for us just keep getting better. A full house for this  one for sure.
He is actually a member of SGL isn't he?
Ron.

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by barkis

[RobertI]

I am going to move heaven and earth to attend this one - very exciting. 

[Gfamily]

The line of text immediately above the link for the zoom meeting says it's on 5th Aug, rather than 9th.

Can you confirm the day? 

Also, is there a limit to how many can attend?

[Helen]

16 minutes ago, Gfamily said:

The line of text immediately above the link for the zoom meeting says it's on 5th Aug, rather than 9th.

Can you confirm the day? 

Also, is there a limit to how many can attend?

It is tonight 🙂   And no limit on  attendance, so bring your friends 😉 

Helen

[Gfamily]

Cheers

[Grant]

Chris Lintott joins us tonight in around two hours - hope to see you all there 🙂

[happy-kat]

This will be interesting as I like citizen science projects.

[TerryMcK]

Fabulous and very informative talk by Chris

[Helen]

Great talk - thanks Chris!  So many projects, need more clear skies!!

Helen 

[happy-kat]

Was interesting, thank you, and I had not realised that the Juno project wanted our images as well.

[Guest]

Another great talk!👍

[StevieA]

Indeed. Chris is a very engaging and informative speaker. If only all my teachers had been like that!

[Tenor Viol]

I wasn't sure what to expect for this and I was pleasantly surprised by it being really both interesting and fascinating. 

My day job in IT for the last 20 years has mostly been around data warehousing and more recently 'big data' and I'm used to having to write code to crunch through billions of rows of data to pull out information. That's in financial services... astronomy would be much more interesting!

[SteveWolves]

Great talk Chris thank you. I remember the clockwise / anticlockwise spiral question so much fun.

[Helen]

For the planetary imagers some options.... 

Junocam:

https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/ 

PVOL

http://pvol2.ehu.eus/pvol2/ - particularly Venus project at the moment in support of Parker Solar Probe (NASA) and BepiColombo (ESA) missions 

 

Helen

 

[Alien 13]

More Chris Lintott talks please, this was wonderful..

Alan

[Mognet]

I wasn't paying attention to the time so I missed it. Will it be available somewhere to watch again?

[Gfamily]

Do pass on our appreciation to Chris. We are very lucky to have him give so much of his time to us, but I guess it works both ways, especially for him !

 

He will be speaking on http://www.astroradio.earth/ as part of the Online Solarsphere Festival next weekend. His talk is at 2:30 on Sunday, but check out the other speakers too, over Saturday and Sunday.

 

[barkis]

There were three private comments which Chris. wasn't certain he should answer. Except to say a Maybe' a Yes', and a Think so'.
One was mine, which I suggested Young Tom the mechanic in Australia had found 5 planets orbiting one star, the big thing being the young man had trawled through
hundreds of Light curve graphs to help him know what to search for in his quest.
I just suggested his  method triggered a flash back to Clyde Tombaugh's search for Pluto, which involved
using a blink comparator to search out any object that appeared to have moved . He of course was successful  and did find Pluto.
Talk about tenacity. Hats Off to both, determination unbounded.
Ron.

PS It dawned on me that I ought to have switched my Mike on.😀

[Grant]

If you would like to watch this, Chris has asked us to keep the video private so please PM me and I can make it available to you for a short period.