The not-for-profit New York Astronomical Corporation was founded in 1968, and with it the Astronomical Society of New York was born. In the intervening 50 years, what has astronomy and astrophysics become? At this historic meeting, we explore the changes in the science over the decades, share the state of the art as practiced and advanced by the New York State astronomical community, and discuss the future of our field in the 50 years to come.
To learn more about the Astronomical Society of New York - visit our Society webpage.
July 11-13, 2018
Kaufmann Theater and Hayden Planetarium
American Museum of Natural History
New York, NY
Invited Speakers: David Helfand (Columbia), Jacqueline Faherty (AMNH), Karen Masters (Haverford), Mary Crone Odekon (Skidmore), Mordecai-Mark Mac Low (AMNH), Phil Nicholson (Cornell)
Student Prize Speakers: Eileen Gonzales (CUNY), Kassandra Anderson (Cornell)
Meeting Schedule: PDF here!
Contact: info.asny50@gmail.com
Organizing Committee: Aileen O'Donoghue (St. Lawrence), Charles Liu (CUNY CSI), Christina Lacey (Hofstra), Jeyhan Kartaltepe (RIT), Joseph Ribaudo (Utica), Mary Crone Odekon (Skidmore), Rebecca Koopmann (Union)
MUSEUM ENTRY: The American Museum of Natural History is located on Central Park West at 79th Street in New York City. (By subway, take the B or the C train to the “81st Street – Museum of Natural History” station.) This meeting’s talks are taking place in the Kaufmann Theater, on the first floor of the museum near the Hall of Northwest Coast Indians. To get to the theater, come in through the southern entrance of the museum on 77th Street under the steps. If you are driving to AMNH, go to the parking garage on the north-facing Rose Center entrance on 81st Street; at 10:00am there should be plenty of space. Bring your ticket with you for validation so you can park at no charge.
Whichever way you come in, inform the first security person you see that you are attending a scientific meeting in the Kaufmann Theater, and you will be directed accordingly.
There will be meeting volunteers guiding you throughout the museum during ASNY50. If you get lost (this happens frequently) do not worry; ask any AMNH employee for directions.
CONTACT: The primary local contact person for this meeting is Charles Liu (cliu@amnh.org). His phone extension in the museum is 212-496-3579 and his cell phone number is 973-204-7162. Other local contact persons and information will be provided during the meeting as needed. Please do not hesitate to reach out for any reason, at any time.
SCIENCE TALK IN THE DOME: The final talk of Session 2 will take place in the Hayden Planetarium Theater. Meeting attendees will walk together from the Kaufmann Theater to the dome (it’s about 3 city blocks, all indoors) and arrive at the theater together; late arriving people might not be allowed entry, although we will certainly do our best to accommodate. This talk is unique – completely different from the “Dark Universe” space show that normally runs in the planetarium during the day.
CONFERENCE DINNER: The conference dinner is at Tessa, a “modern Mediterranean” restaurant one block west of AMNH at 349 Amsterdam Avenue between 76th and 77th Streets. We have reserved the rear half of the restaurant for our meal, with a relatively early reservation time so we can go straight from the museum to Tessa after a short break. A short pre-dinner “cocktail hour” will begin around 5:30pm; dinner will be served at around 6:00pm. We can linger as long as we’d like.
If you are a student, we ask you to pay $25 toward the cost of your dinner; if you are a PhD, we ask you to pay $50. This amount will be collected (cash or check, please) after the start of the conference. There are currently 33 RSVPs for the group dinner, and the maximum number that Tessa can accommodate is 40 for our group – so if you haven’t yet indicated your interest in the dinner, please do so right away!
ASNY50 has been endorsed by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and is officially an AAS Regional Meeting. All meeting participants will adhere to the Ethics Statement of the AAS (found here), with particular attention given to the Conduct Toward Others section. In addition, ASNY50 will be following the AAS Anti-Harassment Policy, which can be found here.