University of Louisville Dept. of Physics & Astronomy
and the Gheens Science Hall & Rauch Planetarium present

       The 2008 Bullitt Lecture in Astronomy


2008 Bullitt poster top graphics
Photo credits for collage:  WIYN Telescope, Mark Hanna/NOAO/AURA/NSF
M3 Globular Cluster: Stella Kafka and R. Kent Honeycutt, Indiana University/WIYN/NOAO/NSF

As we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the invention of the telescope in
1608, and, next year, the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first use of
the
telescope to study the celestial sphere, we can also celebrate the
star cities
of the Milky Way - the glorious globular star clusters that
surround our galaxy. 
Just as the telescopes of the 17th century opened
the sky for discoveries of
star clusters and nebulae, 21st century
telescopes take us to explore the origin
and evolution of globular star
clusters in our galaxy, and in galaxies far away. 
Globular clusters
offer a glimpse of early star formation in the Universe,
and of the
origin of the basic elements of the periodic table.  Some globular
clusters harbor black holes, while others may be the remnants of
galaxies
shredded by the tidal forces of the Milky Way.  And above all,
the globular
clusters are magnificent sentinels in the night sky,
shining with the power of
hundreds of thousands of suns.
 

image of Prof. Caty Pilachowski
     Katie Pilachowski is the Kirkwood Professor and Astronomy Dept. Chair at Indiana
University.  Previously, she was on staff at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory
(NOAO) for 22 years, finishing as Deputy Director of the U.S. Gemini (twin 8 meter
telescope) Program.  She is a past President of the American Astronomical Society, has
served on a number of national and international panels, and is a recognized expert on
globular clusters. 

      She will be interviewed on WFPL 89.3FM's "State of Affairs" at 11am on Oct. 29, with a
re-broadcast at 9pm.
      We will record the lecture for our permanent talk archive, and will
webcast it live on the planetarium website.

The Physics & Astronomy Department’s Bullitt Lecture is a free lecture aimed at the general
public. 
Since 2001, the Physics & Astronomy Department’s Bullitt Lecture has presented a
distinguished astrophysicist to a Louisville audience in the Gheens Science Hall and Rauch
Planetarium.  Gale Christianson, Hubble's biographer at Indiana State, Fred Espinak, an
eclipse expert at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, stellar astrophysicists
James Kaler of U. Illinois, C. R. O'Dell of Vanderbilt and Caty Pilachowski of Indiana U, and
cosmologists Fang Li Zhi of Arizona, J. Richard Gott of
Princeton and Alan
Dressler of the Carnegie Observatories have been Bullitt Lecturers.

College and high school students, teachers, and many others from the community interested in
the impact and excitement that astrophysics has generated have attended Bullitt Lectures in
large numbers. The public and members of the University community are warmly invited!

The Lecture is endowed through a grant from the family of William Marshall Bullitt, the Solicitor General of the United States under President William Howard Taft.  Here is a brief biography
and description of his connection to the University of Louisville.

If you would like further information about the Bullitt Lecture, please e-mail
Dr. Gerard Williger at this email address: williger* where *=@physics.louisville.edu


The 2006 and 2007 lectures are available in streaming (.asx) format in the
UL astronomy talk archive.
Posters for all of the current and previous Bullitt Lectures are available:
2001 Gale Christianson, "Edwin Hubble: An Astronomer's Life"
2002 Fred Espinak, "Solar Eclipses and Mysteries of the Sun"
2003 James Kaler, "The Life and Death of Stars"
2004 Fang Li Zhi, "Dark Energy in the Universe"
2005 J. Richard Gott, "A Map of the Universe"
2006 Alan Dressler, "Galaxies, Stars, Planets and Life: the Birth of the Modern Universe"
The 2006 speaker, Dr. Alan Dressler, was interviewed on Louisville's WFPL (NPR) radio on April 20, 2006 on State of Affairs, which has an archive edition of the radio interview. 
2007 C.R. O'Dell, "Creating the Hubble Space Telescope"
2008 Caty Pilachowski, "The Star Cities of the Milky Way"  flier

Links to other Bullitt Lectures and Bullitt book collections:
Bullitt Lecture in Mathematics
Bullitt Lecture in Fine Arts
William Marshall Bullitt Collection of Rare Mathematics and Astronomy Books
More on the Bullitt Collection of Books at UofL