Public Star Night – Friday, June 21, 2024
Little Thompson Observatory
Doors Open: 7:00 | Guest Speaker 7:30 Suzanne Metlay, Ph.D. | Observing at LTO: 8:30-10:00
Moon Missions Update: 2024
As the United States gets closer to sending Artemis 2 astronauts to lunar orbit in 2025, several nations and private companies are working together or on their own to go to the Moon. Let’s look at some recent and upcoming non-NASA missions to lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface. The Lunar Gateway space station is underway; find out who’s involved and who gets to walk on the Moon next.
Suzanne Metlay, Ph.D. is full-time faculty in Earth & Space Sciences Teacher Education at Western Governors University, a fully online non-profit university founded in 1997 by 19 governors of western states, including Colorado. Previously, Suzanne taught astronomy and geology at Front Range Community College in Longmont and Fort Collins, was Operations Director for Secure World Foundation in Superior, and served as Education Programs Manager at CU-Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium. Currently, Suzanne is a past President of the Teacher Education Division of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, and serves on the Advocacy Committee.
Suzanne has a BA in History and Science from Harvard University and a PhD in Geology and Planetary Science from the University of Pittsburgh. She was awarded the Antarctica Service Medal from the Department of the Navy and National Science Foundation for fieldwork conducted as a participant in the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) in 1991.
Following Suzanne’s talk, the observatory will be open for public viewing through our telescopes, weather permitting.
