Avion Issue 4 Spring 2014

Page 1

Weekly

Weather

Tuesday 77 10% 59

Wednesday 77 50% 58

Thursday 70 20% 51

Friday 69 10% 50

Saturday 74 10% 54

Amateur Astronomy Club Hosts Open House Zachary Wilkinson News Editor

Wu Force Woos Audience

When the new one meter telescope arrived on campus on Monday, dozens of students gathered in the quad area to watch the crane lift each of the four pieces. The hype started last summer when the dome for the observatory was also lifted by crane in much the same fashion. Dozens of students and faculty arrived to watch it rise up against a sunlit sky. On Friday Feb. 7, with the help of the Physics Department, the Amatuer Astronomy Club (AAC) hosted their first open house in the new College of Arts and Sciences. Nearly 350 parents and students alike enjoyed the opportunity to play Bingo, watch star videos, view the new telescope, or take a tour of the universe using Stellarium on the 5th floor. Stellarium is a free open source planetarium program for computers. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you would see with your naked eye, binoculars, or a telescope. Astronomy club members Daniel Kopeck and Chelsea Martz operated the Stellarium. Daniel, a junior

Zachary Wilkinson/The Avion Newspaper

at Embry-Riddle who has been with the Astronomy club for three years took visitors in groups of 25 on tours of their favorite planets in the solar system and shared facts about each planet. “The Astronomy open house is very educational, here you can get all of life’s questions answered” said Kopeck. The pride and

joy of the College of Arts and Sciences is the new one meter Ritchey-Chretien telescope from DFM engineering. At a cost of one million dollars, it’s no small investment. Visitors were treated to tours of the observatory led by members of the Astronomy club. The President of the Astronomy club, Bert Kal-

Himani Parekh Staff Reporter Music wove in liquid images wavering through the air, blending and fusing reality with the vast landscapes of the mind. Territories behind locked doors opened and morphed into living creatures, spiraling butterflies and flying sunshine. The Earth was alive, and the man-made walls melted in her palm. The music of the Wu Force is quite literally unique, a word so overused in society that it seems to have lost its meaning. Haven’t we all heard the adage, “you’re unique, just like everybody else”? Cynicism and fear and conformity are a part of daily life, and in truth, have always been a part of human nature. The fearlessness and creativity of the musicians behind the Wu Force was a breath of freedom from these chains. On Friday, Feb 7, the Wu Force, comprised of banjo player and vocalist Abigail Washburn, guzheng master Wu Fei, and multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Kai Welch, lit up the Willie Miller Auditorium with their vivacious and powerful sound. The performance began with what can only be termed the “tame” half, featuring deep, anecdote-driven music that stirred images and colors usually dusted over in the mechanical single-mindedness of this university’s focus. The second half of the performance took a sharp turn into the wild. The musicians returned from intermission in colorful, almost clashing, unabashedly bold attire and proceeded to bend their music

lio, a Senior at Embry-Riddle led my tour of the observatory. The telescope sat at the right of the room and hung on a forked base which pivots the telescope on it’s axis. He told each group about the telescope and answered any questions they had. The dome above the telescope rotates to allow the telescope view

in any direction. A six-foot spotter scope is attached to the main device and has a much smaller focal length so that an area of the sky can be found easier before images are taken. The spotter scope alone is six feet long, much larger than a telescope you could find in the home of an average enthusiast. The one meter

to any musical style and subject that took their fancy. They touched on Chinese story-song, jazz, a care-free tropical adventure, something akin to tap dancing…in boots…on round wooden circles, and the insane reality of Great Stress…or Great Pear (the name of the song was in Chinese and meant either of those two expressions). As a member of the audience, one could naught but admire the intensity and unboundedness of their creativity and daring. Adding to that, Washburn explained near the end of the performance that “Wu” in Chinese means “nothing,” making Wu Force the “Nothing” Force, but that nothingness is powerful because it can be anything. Mental Big Bangs, proceed. The Wu Force is all about their creative experimentation, Kai Welch elaborated. All three artists expressed their pleasure at being able to have this opportunity to share their music with us here at Embry-Riddle. A great part of that opportunity came from the efforts of Dr. Kain and the results of his Silk Road Seminar course, which discusses the fusion of Eastern and Western culture, a concept embodied by the style and chosen media of the Wu Force. In a world increasingly compartmentalized and obsessed with defining identity, the music of the Wu Force is a reminder that some of the greatest moments in human history, such as the era of the Silk Road, come not from rigid definition but from cultural blending. The Wu Force concert was not only a fun way to end the week but also a thought-provoking journey in music and culture.

telescope is currently awaiting its final piece, a mirror, which was delayed due to damage. Until then, the telescope is in a calibration stage. The mirror is expected sometime next month, which will complete the telescope. When it’s finished, it will be a learning telescope for students and astronomy professors to conduct research. And last but not least, visitors could take a walking tour of the solar system. Zachary Pebley, the Vice-President of AAC and Junior at ERAU, led the tours. We started near the Lehman Building with a sun about 12 inches in diameter. From there, we walked from planet to planet through much of campus in a scale of how far away that planet would be if we were traversing through space. It was a beautiful night for a walk in the cool misty air. We talked of celestial bodies farther away than is possible to comprehend. The Astronomy Open House brings us closer to something that is otherwise hard to grasp. With the new telescope, students will get just that much closer to the mystery which surrounds us.

Richard Weakley/The Avion Newspaper

Richard Weakley/The Avion Newspaper


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Avion Issue 4 Spring 2014 by The Avion - Issuu