Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton - New Jersey's premiere astronomy club

Club Meetings: 2012 Schedule

AAAP meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month (September through June) at 8 PM. Members and guests gather at a spacious lecture theatre in Peyton Hall on the Princeton University campus. Click here for directions to Peyton Hall.

There is often a 6:00 PM pre-meeting dinner at a local Princeton restaurant; members and guests are welcome and encouraged to attend. Here, individuals get a chance to chat with the evening's guest speaker, and get to know their fellow AAAP members. For further information about attending the pre-meeting dinner, contact our Program Chair, Ken Levy.

Regular attendees of the lectures are encouraged to become paid members to support these popular speaking events. Please email the AAAP for additional details.

Below is the current roster of outstanding speakers and topics scheduled for the 2011 - 2012 season. Click on links within the table for additional information. Be sure to check back here often, as our itinerary fills out, this schedule will be updated. For additional details regarding the guest speakers, contact the AAAP Program Chair, Ken Levy.

Here is a list of speakers from previous seasons.

2011 - 2012 Season	Speaker	Topic
September 13	Dr. Gillian Knapp - Princeton University	The Cosmic Origin of Carbon
October 11	Prof. Freeman Dyson - Institute For Advanced Study	Regarding Extraterrestial Life
November 8	Dr. Ken Kremer - Spaceflight Magazine & Universe Today	Atlantis, The End of America's Shuttle Program and What's Beyond for NASA
December 13	Dr. Gaspar Bakos - Ass't Professor Princeton Astrophysical Sciences	Searching for Transiting Extrasolar Planets
January 10 -- 2012	Dr. Michael Shara - American Museum of Natural History, Columbia University	How Novae and Type Ia Supernovae are Connected
February 14	Dr. Paul Steinhardt - Director, Princeton Center for Theoretical Science	Inflationary Cosmology on Trial
March 13	Dr. Mark Trodden - University of Pennsylvania	Dark Matter
April 10	Dr. Gregory Matloff - NYC College of Technology	Biosphere Extension
May 8	Dr. Mario Livio - Space Telescope Science Institute Technion, Israel Institute of Technology	The Latest Scientific Achievements of the Hubble Space Telescope
June 12	Bill Murrary - AAAP & State Planetarium	Meeting will be held at the State Planetarium in Trenton

$Come view the universe through our beautifully restored Hastings-Byrne refractor. One of two scopes at the Simpson Observatory.$

Simpson Observatory Open Houses

2012 public nights season, every Friday evening, weather permitting April 6, 2012 through October 26, 2011.    8:00PM - 11:00PM

Up-to-the-minute information whether observatory is open or not (weather-related) - click HERE

The Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton opens its observatory to the public starting Friday, April 6th, this year.  We are proud to announce expansion of the open house schedule to every Friday evening, April 2012 - October 2012, weather permitting. .
Anyone interested in the night sky is invited to visit. Non AAAP members are welcome and there is no fee.      Here is sky map to bring along!

Please note: Children must be accompanied by an adult. Due to restricted space and nature of the equipment, children must be closely supervised by parent or guardian.

Located in Washington Crossing State Park, the observatory houses a beautifully refurbished 6.25" Hastings-Byrne refractor and research-grade 14" Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector. During our open house season, guests can mingle with amateur astronomers to view a myriad of celestial objects. Members frequently bring smaller instruments and set up around the main observatory. Guests are invited to do the same!   Have questions about visiting the observatory? Email us -- we'll be glad to help!

The observatory phone is 609-737-2575. You may call, if weather is variable, to see if we will open.

To confirm you are visiting on a public night, please call the observatory at: 609.737.2575. If the observatory is open for that evening, a AAAP staff member will answer. If the weather is questionable, and you keep getting the observatory answering machine after (the time of) sunset, it is likely the public night has been cancelled. However - clear nights permitting - we very much look forward to showing you some of the extraordinary sights in the universe.

Look who's back ! ------------------------------------->

The observatory is open for use at any time for members who are observatory keyholders (keyholders are required take a course in observatory operation and agree to be active with scheduled duty on public starwatch nights). AAAP members may contact observatory keyholders at any time to arrange an appointment to use the Simpson Observatory.