Kansans For Science presents: Johnson County Science Cafe’
Linda Hall Library and the David Levy Talk
Speaker: Eric Ward, Vice President for Public Programs, Linda Hall Library
October 13, 2015 at 6:30 pm
Coach’s Bar and Grill, 9089 W. 135th Street, one block west of 135th and Antioch, south side of 135th St.
Come learn about the mission, resources and programs of the Linda Hall Library. The Linda Hall Library is the world’s foremost independent research library devoted to science, engineering, and technology. After a brief introduction to Linda Hall, we will watch the talk given by David Levy. “Writing the Same Book Over Almost Sixty Years: A Record of a Nightwatchman’s Journey Under the Night Sky.”
From the Linda Hall description of the event, “Since David H. Levy accidently happened to see a shooting star during the summer of 1956, he has kept an observing record, or log. Session number one was a partial eclipse of the Sun on October 2, 1959, but the log includes earlier sessions stretching back to July 4, 1956, and forward to well over eighteen thousand sessions. His record includes the comets, eclipses, exploding suns, and especially the friendships that have come from so many years of skywatching… with slides and music, Mr. Levy will share some of these experiences as he prepares to hand over the observing logs to the Linda Hall Library.
David H. Levy is one of the most successful comet discoverers in history. He has discovered 22 comets, nine of them using his own backyard telescopes. With Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California he discovered Shoemaker-Levy 9, the comet that collided with Jupiter in 1994…Dr. Levy is the author or editor of 35 books and other products. He won an Emmy in 1998 … As the Science Editor for Parade Magazine from 1997 to 2006, he was able to reach more than 80 million readers, almost a quarter of the population of the United States. A contributing editor for Sky and Telescope Magazine, he writes its monthly “Star Trails” column…
He has been awarded five honorary doctorates, and asteroid 3673 (Levy) was named in his honor. In 2010, David became the first person to discover comets visually, photographically, and electronically…”
Having attended this talk, I can tell you that Dr. Levy was inspirational.
For more information: [email protected]