Join the FRIENDS OF PARI for Annual Meeting and Symposium

The annual meeting of the Friends of PARI and Symposium will be held at PARI on Friday, September 10th from 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM. This annual event is our way to thank our volunteers and contributors. Friends of PARI memberships are available beginning at $50 per year. Our guest speaker for the meeting and symposium will be Dr. Fran Nolan, Executive Director of the NC Grassroots Science Museum Collaborative. Click NEWS RELEASE to read more about the plans for the event. Click REGISTRATION to register to attend. Click PHOTOS to see pictures from last year's annual meeting.

PARI Welcomes Visitors to Our Campus

Each year thousands of people come to PARI. We have welcomed visitors from around the world. Monthly we have guests who attend our very popular Evening at PARI programs. Each Wednesday at 2:00 pm PARI's volunteer docents lead guided tours of our campus. Click 2010 DOCENT TOURS to see recent visitors. Click PAST DOCENT TOURS to see pictures from past tours. In addition we are pleased to host other groups and individuals during our regular hours and for special events. Click 2010 VISITORS to see recent pictures of our visitors. Click PAST VISITORS to see pictures from previous years.

August Evening At PARI - Atmospheric Science and Weather Forecasting

The August 13, 2010 Evening at PARI program featured the topic of Atmospheric Science and Weather Forecasting. More than thirty vistors heard a presentation by UNC-Asheville Associate Professor Dr. Doug Miller. Click PHOTOS to see pictures from the evening's events. Next month's program will be the FRIENDS OF PARI ANNUAL MEETING AND SYMPOSIUM. Click PHOTOS to see pictures from past Evening at PARI programs.

FIRST ASU Climate Science Camp at PARI

The first NASA sponsored Appalachian State University Climate Science Camp at PARI was held the week of August 15 - 20. Twenty four homeschool students learned about atmospheric science and climate from a team of ASU researchers. Click PHOTOS to pictures of their daily activities. The camp was led by Drs. Jim Sherman and Brett Taubman with graduate students Ginger Kelly and John Markham. While at the camp the students also studied astronomy with PARI's Education Director Christi Whitworth and Science Director Dr. Michael Castelaz. Ralph Patterson and Leigha Dickens also worked with these students.

PARI Hosts Duke TIP for Ninth Year

On July 8, 2010 twenty seven high school students from across the country arrived at PARI to begin the two week Duke Talent Identification Program (TIP) - Above and Beyond. This is the ninth consecutive year that PARI has hosted the program focused on astronomy, astrophysics and astrobiology. Click PHOTOS to see pictures of the students and activities. This has been one of PARI's premier programs. Several alumni from this Duke TIP have gone on to excel in their scientific studies both at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Friend of PARI Ray Duncombe Facilitates Plate Collection

Friend of PARI Ray Duncombe helped make arrangements for PARI to receive a very important astonomical plate collection from the Universof Texas and the McDonald Observatory. The collection arrived at PARI on Tuesday, July 27, 2010. Ray's friends and former colleagues, Paul Hemenway and Wayne Green transported the collection to PARI from Austin, Texas in a Penske truck. Once at PARI, summer interns and staff helped Ray, Paul and Wayne unload the collection. Click PHOTOS to see pictures of the move. Ray generously provided the cabinets to house PARI's newest addition to APDA. Special thanks to Judit Ries from the UT Astronomy Department and the McDonald Observatory for coordinating this transfer.

Interns Played An Important Role At PARI This Summer

Nine undergraduate interns studied and did research at PARI this summer. The students were from many universities including: UNC Asheville, UNC Pembroke, UNC Chapel Hill, Furman University, Florida Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago and Harvey Mudd College. Click PHOTOS to see pictures of the interns and their work. In addition to these paid interns, there have been many other professors, undergraduates and K-12 teachers helping with PARI educational programs this summer serving as instructors, mentors and teaching assistants. PARI is grateful to them all.

PARI To Once Again Use 26 Meter Antenna to Observe Pulsars

PARI staff mounted L-Band and P-Band Receivers on PARI's "Flagship" 26 Meter Radio Telescopes this past two weeks. These feed will allow these instruments to, once again, be used to observe Pulsars. Staff, including Science Director Michael Castelaz, Site Engineer Ben Goldsmith, CIO Lamar Owen and the Facilities Team of Thad McCall, Brad McCall and Donnie Curto all participated it the mounting efforts. Furman Professor David Moffett, assisted by the Chip Parks Summer Intern Alice Griffith provided guidance and technical support. The antennae are currently being used to observe supernovae remnants. Click PHOTOS to see pictures of the P-Band feed being mounted on 26 East. PARI's newest instrument, the Vela Array (see story below) is also being used to observe the Vela pulsar.

PARI Concludes Successful Space Science Labs

PARI began its very busy summer of programs with two sessions of the Burroughs Wellcome sponsored Space Science Lab the weeks of June 17-22 and June 29 - July 3. Click PHOTOS to see pictures from the sessions. This is the fifth year that PARI has conducted this program. The first three years the SSL Scholars built radio receivers and collected data. This year, as the group did last year, the SSL Scholars built their own optical telescopes, took pictures of our Moon participating in a NASA field study. 

PARI's Own "Dr. Bob" Recognized by SEPA

PARI's Resident Astronomer, Dr. Robert Hayward "Dr. Bob", was honored at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Planetarium Association (SEPA) last Friday night in Kingsport, Tennessee. Bob was presented with the prestigious Paul Campbell Fellowship Award. Click NEWS RELEASE to read more about this honor. Click PHOTOS to see pictures from the event. We are all very proud of Bob and all that he has accomplished for PARI and for the field. The award was a surprise to Bob, thanks to Education Director Christi Whitworth's hard work.

PARI Kicks Off NASA/NC-MSEN SPACE NASA Teacher Workshops

PARI's Science Director Michael Castelaz and Education Director Christi Whitworth conducted the first teacher professional development workshop for the NASA-sponsored grant, STUDENTS PREPARING TO ADVANCE INTO CAREERS IN ENGINEERING (SPACE). The workshop, on Saturday May 22, 2010, was held at the Friday Institute in Raleigh, NC and included MSEN instructors from across the state. Click PHOTOS to see pictures from the workshop training sessions. This is the second major grant for which PARI has conducted training workshops with the North Carolina Mathematics and Science Education Network. Previously PARI staff conducted the teacher professional development training sessions for the NSF-sponsored ROBOTS project.

PARI Opens Access to Optical Ridge

Providing better access to the optical telescopes and the infrastructure on PARI's South Ridge has been a big need. This past week PARI staff, along with McCall's Grading improved that access. Click PHOTOS to see pictures of the work.

PARI Installs a Tower for New Instruments

On Tuesday, May 25, 2010 PARI staff and McCall's Grading and Construction erected a 54 ft tower on PARI's North Ridge. The tower will hold a weather station, web cameras and other scientific instruments. Click PHOTOS to see pictures of the process.

PARI Staff Visits USNO, NSF, STScI and US Congressman Shuler

Don and Jo Cline, along with Dave Clavier and Thurburn Barker, visited several organizations in Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland during the week of May 11-14. Click PHOTOS to see pictures from their trip. They were in Washington to retrieve an important collection of Astronomical Photographic Plates from the US Naval Observatory. While in Washington they met with US Congressman Heath Shuler and his staff. They met with staff members from the Astronomy Division of the National Science Foundation. They also had meetings with staff from the Space Telescope Science Institute on John Hopkins University campus in Baltimore.

PARI's 11th Annual SPACE DAY Open House

PARI's 11th Annual Open House Space Day on Saturday, May 1, 2010 was a huge success despite threats of bad weather. More than 200 people attended the event. Click PHOTOS to see pictures from the day. This popular event typically draws hundreds of visitors to our campus. Visitors enjoyed hearing from our scientists and staff about the many programs at PARI. They also toured our exhibits, attended planetarium shows, heard presentations and walked our Galaxy Walk. A highlight of this year's Space Day was President Don Cline's presentation on meteorites. Visitors were able to examine meteorites from his collection and hold pieces of the Moon and of Mars.

PARI Homeschool Day Held on Friday, April 30th

The most recent Homeschool Day at PARI was held on campus on Friday, April 30, 2010. Click PHOTOS to see pictures from this event. This is the sixth year that PARI has hosted homeschoolers and their parents for these science education days. Some 40 students attended along with their parents. Students attended a planetarium program on "Stars of Lewis and Clark" and attended classes on observing Earth from Space. Click PAST HOMESCHOOL DAYS to see pictures from previous Homeschool Day programs.

Refurbished Galaxy Walk Unveiled at SPACE DAY

PARI's Director of Public Outreach Dr. Joe Phillips replaced the placards on the Galaxy Walk in time for our visitors at the May 1st SPACE DAY. Click PHOTOS to see pictures of the new markers. The Galaxy Walk is a project that the Friends of PARI construction on our campus. The markers represent celestial objects scaled in distance from our Sun. This has become a very popular attraction for our many visitors. This is just one more example of how important the Friends of PARI are to our success.

PARI Staff Active at Professional Meetings in 2010

PARI staff members have been active in 2010 at professional meetings, including: March 19 WRESA/Science House Workshop in Asheville; March 16-17 SciGirls Training in Philadephia; March 6 Tri-Star Meeting in Greensboro, NC; February 26 "High Point Uinverse Day" in High Point, NC.; and the 125th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society meeting the first week of January in Washington, DC.

PARI STAR PARTY March 12-14

Participants at the March 12-14, 2010 Star Party attended the monthly Evening at PARI program Friday night, which featured a workshop of "How to Use a Telescope" by Drs. Bob Hayward and Michael Castelaz. They were also introduced to the research opportunities in APDA by Director Thurburn Barker, heard about the history of PARI from President Don Cline, attended planetarium shows by Director of Education Christi Whitworth and shared ideas among themselves on new techniques in astronomy. Click PHOTOS to see pictures from the weekend. Click PREVIOUS PHOTOS to see pictures from the September 2009 Star Party. 

PARI is an offical Partner of the USA Science and Engineering Festival

PARI is proud to be an Official Partner of the inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival to be held in the greater Washington DC area in October 2010. The Festival, which will be the country’s first national science festival, is a collaboration of over 500 of the country’s  leading science and engineering organizations and aims to reignite the interest of our nation’s youth in the sciences. The culmination of the Festival will be a two-day Expo on the National Mall on October 23-24, 2010, which will give children, teens and adults the opportunity to explore all facets of science & engineering through hundreds of fun, hands-on activities. People across the Unites States are encouraged to hold Satellite Events in their communities the same weekend that hundreds of thousands of people celebrate science on the National Mall For more information on all Festival events and how you can get involved, visit http://www.usasciencefestival.org/.

USA Science and Engineering Festival Update:  New video contest announced!!

K-12 Students: Tell us why Science is Cool! Enter now for the USA Science & Engineering Festival Kavli Science Video Contest! :  Have your video screened on the National Mall, win prize money and electronics and possibly even a trip to the Expo in Washington D.C.! Do you think Science is cool? Do you want to share your passion for science with others? Here is your chance to inspire thousands of people to be more curious, and to care about science & engineering the way you do: create a short video that explores the question "Why is Science Cool?" Videos might explore a scientific concept, show us the wonders of nature, give us a glimpse into the future, show us what scientific discovery has done for us in the past or will do for us in the future, introduce us to a great scientist or engineer, tell us why you think science is so cool or simply show us why we should care about science and/or engineering. Sponsored by The Kavli Foundation and conducted in partnership with SciVee, the contest closes on July 15, 2010. Prize money goes to the organization the student is representing (be it a school, after-school program, or other outreach program) - students win electronics prizes and either a trip to DC to the Expo or tickets for a VIP event to meet the Mythbusters. For more information visit http://www.usasciencefestival.org/2010festival/contests/kavli-science-video-contest 

The PARI 2009 Annual Report is Available

The 2009 Annual Report has been published and is available for downloading. This is the fifth year that PARI has published an annual report. Highlights from this past year include: STEM programs such as Duke TIP, ROBOTS, Homeschool and Space Science Lab; Research programs such as the Astronomical Photographic Data Archive (APDA), the PARSEC Interferometer and the Clemson Fabry-Perot Spectrometer; and reports on Friends of PARI, StarLab and the Stellar Classification Online- Public Exploration (SCOPE). Click 2009 ANNUAL REPORT for a color pdf of the report. Click Spring 2010 VIEW to see the latest quarterly newsletter. Click 2009 STUDENT SUMMER RESEARCH PROCEEDINGS for a copy of this year's research reports.

PARI Adds a New Research Instrument

In November 2009 the PARI staff installed a new antenna array to monitor the Vela pulsar. This instrument, which was mounted on the Optical Ridge (south), was donated to PARI by Don and Jo Cline. Click PHOTOS to see pictures of the array being installed. The streaming data from this instrument will be available soon on the PARI website.

Astronomers from Czech Republic Doing Research at PARI

Astronomers Rene Hudec and Lukas Hudec, visiting from the Czech Repubic, are studying the spectra of stars and galaxies using photographic images in the PARI Astronomical Photographic Data Archive (APDA). Dr. Hudec will use the results in combination with data to be taken by the European Space Agency GAIA Space TElescope to be launched in 2012. Click PHOTOS to see pictures from their visit.

Transylvania Times Thanks PARI for Service to the Community 

An editorial in the April 23rd edition of the Transylvania Times newspaper thanked PARI for meeting our mission. They wrote, "Ten years ago that facility was taken over by the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, better known as PARI. Since that time PARI has had nothing but a beneficial effect on the community." Click EDITORIAL to read the complete text of the article. Congratulations to the entire PARI staff, including our great partners from Avant Communications, who have helped us spread the word of the good works of PARI. And we especially thank Don & Jo Cline for their many years of support.

Prominent Geologist Helps Design PARI Geology Tour

The Curator of Geology for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Dr. Christopher Tacker, is leading an effort to develop a self-guided geology tour of PARI. Dr. Tacker came to PARI twice in the last few weeks to collect samples and assess PARI's rock formations. Click PHOTOS to see pictures from his visit on May 27-28. While at PARI, Dr. Tacker made a presentation on the richness of PARI's geological history.

Photos of the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute

Located on the site of the former NASA Rosman Tracking Station in the Pisgah National Forest, PARI offers an unparalleled opportunity for people of all ages to experience the wonders of scientific research first hand. Click PHOTOS to see pictures of PARI taken at various times throughout the year.