Speaking Engagements
I have been given the privilege of being asked to speak before live audiences at the following events. If you have the time or the interest, please plan to attend.
2015 speaking engagements
Lockheed-Martin Colloquia
- Presentation: River of Stars
An ongoing collaboration between the speaker and an international team of professional astronomers has demonstrated the scientific potential of using modest aperture, commercially produced, semi-robotic telescopes situated under steady dark skies and affordable off-the-shelf astronomical cameras to reveal extremely dim, diffuse structures on the outskirts of distant galaxies that sheds light on galactic evolution. This presentation will share techniques, experiences and highlights of the investigations thus far. .
4PM, Thursday, November 19, 2015
Lockheed Martin Colloquia
3251 Hanover St
Building 202 Auditorium
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Advanced Imaging Conference
- Workshop: 8 Ways to Intensify Color
This presentation will explore several techniques you can employ to control the amount of color, from subtle to vivid, portrayed by your images without adding distracting noise or unwanted artifacts.
October 16-18, 2015
San Jose, California
Belgian Association for Astronomy, Blankenberge, Belgium
R. Jay GaBany will speak twice at the twenty-ninth SC / VVS weekend taking place on October 3- 4 at Corsendonk Duinse polders Ruzettelaan 195 to 8370 Blankenberge.
- Workshop: Awakening your images
Astrophotographers have about 5 seconds to capture and hold a viewer’s attention before they move on to something else. How can astrophotographers convince viewers to spend more time looking at their picture? This workshop will discuss the importance of clarity, contrast and color by explaining processing techniques that will make any astrophotograph more interesting.
- Presentation: Good Science with Modest Instruments
An ongoing collaboration between the author and an international team of professional astronomers has demonstrated the scientific potential of using modest aperture, commercially produced, semi-robotic telescopes situated under steady dark skies and affordable off-the-shelf astronomical cameras to reveal extremely dim, diffuse structures on the outskirts of distant galaxies that sheds light on galactic evolution. This presentation will share techniques, experiences and highlights of the investigations thus far
October 4, 2015
Corsendonck Duinse Polders
Blankenberge, Belgium
Astrophotography Workgroup Association, Oss, Netherlands
- Workshop: Intensifying color
This workshop will explore several techniques you can employ to control the amount of color, from subtle to vivid, portrayed by your images without adding distracting noise or unwanted artifacts.
- Presentation: Rivers of Stars
An ongoing collaboration between the speaker and an international team of professional astronomers has demonstrated the scientific potential of using modest aperture, commercially produced, semi-robotic telescopes situated under steady dark skies and affordable off-the-shelf astronomical cameras to reveal extremely dim, diffuse structures on the outskirts of distant galaxies that sheds light on galactic evolution. This presentation will share techniques, experiences and highlights of the investigations thus far.
April 4, 2015
't Oude Theater
Oss, Netherlands
2013 speaking engagements
Australian Advanced Imaging Conference 2013
- Workshop: Intensifying color
This workshop will explore several techniques you can employ to control the amount of color, from subtle to vivid, portrayed by your images without adding distracting noise or unwanted artifacts.
- Presentation: Stellar Rivers
An ongoing collaboration between the speaker and an international team of professional astronomers has demonstrated the scientific potential of using modest aperture, commercially produced, semi-robotic telescopes situated under steady dark skies and affordable off-the-shelf astronomical cameras to reveal extremely dim, diffuse structures on the outskirts of distant galaxies that sheds light on galactic evolution. This presentation will share techniques, experiences and highlights of the investigations thus far.
August 23-25, 2013
Crown Plaza Hotel
Surfer's Paradise, QLD, Australia
2011 speaking engagements
Advanced Imaging Conference 2011
Riverside AstroImaging Workshop 2011
Big Things from Small Packages
Amateurs are regularly making contributions to Science, using backyard equipment, software, and processing techniques. This presentation will emphasize how you can be part of this effort.
September 16, 2011
Pasadena Center , Pasadena, California
Peninsula Astronomical Society
Rivers of Stars
For the past decade an international group of professional astronomers has been searching outside the local group of galaxies for ancient relics to support our understanding about galactic evolution.
The most widely accepted cosmological theory explains that major spiral galaxies, like the Milky Way, formed over the past 10 billion years from less massive clumps in a process described as galactic cannibalism. Current simulations also predict that fossils of these mergers should still be detectable as huge streams of stars and dark matter in the outskirts of spiral galaxies but scant evidence outside the local group has been discovered.
Stellar tidal streams are extremely faint and form an apparent structure that is larger than the galaxy it surrounds. Therefore, star streams are difficult to detect with large professional telescopes due to the instrument's restricted field of view and the need for exposures often exceeding the allocation time available to any one observer. However, today's best off the shelf astronomical cameras are extremely sensitive, rivaling results produced professionally just a few years ago, when they are used under dark, clear sky conditions.
Five years ago, I was invited to collaborate with this international team using his half meter remotely controlled telescope initially located under dark skies in the south central Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico but recently moved to the California Sierra Nevada Mountains between Yosemite and King's Canyon National Parks. My instruments offer a wide field of view and their use is not limited by competition among disparate professional or academic researchers. Therefore, exposures spanning days, weeks or months yielding images with over ten or more hours of accumulated time are not only possible, but common.
These deep images offer a front row view of activity that led to the assembly of galaxies like our own.
This talk will explain the team’s efforts, review its findings and conclude with the release of new deep space image that represents the group’s latest evidence.
August 12, 2011
Foothill College , Los Altos Hills, California
2011 Society for Astronomical Sciences Symposium
Good Science with Modest Instruments
An ongoing collaboration between the author and an international team of professional astronomers has demonstrated the scientific potential of using modest aperture, commercially produced, semi-robotic telescopes situated under steady dark skies and affordable off-the-shelf astronomical cameras to reveal extremely dim, diffuse structures on the outskirts of distant galaxies that sheds light on galactic evolution. This presentation will share techniques, experiences and highlights of the investigations thus far.
May 24- 26, 2011
Northwoods Resort in Big Bear, California
Click here for more information about the symposium.
2011 CEDIC (Central European Deep Sky Imaging Conference)
Rivers of Stars
According to the most widely agreed models, galaxies grew over time by merging with other galaxies. Unfortunately, direct observation of these events involving star systems outside the Local Group have eluded astronomers until recently. For the past five years, R. Jay GaBany has been collaborating with an international group of professional astronomers and astrophysicists to discover the remnants of these ancient encounters using a modest sized telescope located under very dark, clear skies in New Mexico, USA. I will describe my work with the team, explain my techniques and present the team's latest findings.
Producing Deep Results- a processing workshop
This workshop will discuss image capture techniques and processing methods that enable the detection of extremely faint structures hidden within astro-images and the use of color to produce dynamic pictures.
March 18- 20, 2011
ARS Electronica Center, Linz, Austria
Click here for more information about the conference.
San Francisco Amateur Astronomers
The Search for Galactic Fossils
For the past decade an international group of professional astronomers has been searching outside the local group of galaxies for ancient relics to support our understanding about galactic evolution.
The most widely accepted cosmological theory explains that major spiral galaxies, like the Milky Way, formed over the past 10 billion years from less massive clumps in a process described as galactic cannibalism. Current simulations also predict that fossils of these mergers should still be detectable as huge streams of stars and dark matter in the outskirts of spiral galaxies but scant evidence outside the local group has been discovered.
Stellar tidal streams are extremely faint and form an apparent structure that is larger than the galaxy it surrounds. Therefore, star streams are difficult to detect with large professional telescopes due to the instrument's restricted field of view and the need for exposures often exceeding the allocation time available to any one observer. However, today's best off the shelf astronomical cameras are extremely sensitive, rivaling results produced professionally just a few years ago, when they are used under dark, clear sky conditions.
Five years ago, I was invited to collaborate with this international team using his half meter remotely controlled telescope initially located under dark skies in the south central Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico but recently moved to the California Sierra Nevada Mountains between Yosemite and King's Canyon National Parks. My instruments offer a wide field of view and their use is not limited by competition among disparate professional or academic researchers. Therefore, exposures spanning days, weeks or months yielding images with over ten or more hours of accumulated time are not only possible, but common.
These deep images offer a front row view of activity that led to the assembly of galaxies like our own.
This talk will explain the team’s efforts, review its findings and conclude with the release of new deep space image that represents the group’s latest evidence.
February 16, 2011 at 7:30PM
Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way, San Francisco, CA 94114
2009 speaking engagements
2009 Advanced Imaging Conference
Making Eye Candy
The only thing better than creating an interesting image is to produce a picture that viewers consider memorable. This requires the use of a few common ingredients that should be included in any astro-photographer's imaging pantry- clarity, composition and saturation. This presentation will discuss simple techniques that leverage each aspect individually (and in combination) to turn a less than satisfying data set into something delicious for even the most discriminating eye tooth!
October 30- November 1, 2009
San Jose Doubletree Hotel, San Jose, California
Click here for more information about the conference.
2008 speaking engagements
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Galactic Ghosts
with David Martínez-Delgado, IAC
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The galaxies that populate the Cosmos assumed their present form partially through a process of collision with other island universes. Evidence is mounting that galactic evolution was not confined to these spectacular events, however, because it is now believed that galaxies also grow and evolve by disrupting and absorbing smaller satellite galaxies. When a small galaxy is captured by the gravitational pull of a large spiral, for example, it can leave a thin, faint trail of dust, gas and stars as its orbit decays. Several star streams have been found surrounding the Milky Way and more have been discovered circling nearby galaxies, too. Their presence may also contribute to the slightly twisted appearance seen in many edge-on galaxies. This discussion will explain current results obtained by one of the world's leading galactic tidal stream researchers and describe the contributions possible by amateur-astronomers.
April 4, 2008
La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
NorthEast Astro-Imaging Conference
Scientific Aesthetics
Most consider that science and art are pointed in opposite directions and that neither can coexist with the other. In reality, science often inspires art and art often explains science. Therefore, there exists a deep, mutual dependency. Astro-photographers stand at a cross-roads between these two disciplines- data used for scientific purposes can also form the basis of beautiful deep space imagery that can capture the viewer's imagination. This presentation will describe the differences between techniques required to produce research-grade images and methods that use the same data to produce a pretty picture which can stimulate scientific curiosity.
April 24th- 25th, 2008
Rockland Community College, Suffern, NY
Read Sky & Telescope's comments.
Midwest Astro-Imaging Conference
A Recipe for Eye Candy
The only thing better than creating an interesting image is to produce a picture that viewers consider memorable. This requires the use of a few common ingredients that should be included in any astro-photographer's imaging pantry- clarity, composition and saturation. This presentation will discuss simple techniques that leverage each aspect individually (and in combination) to turn a less than satisfying data set into something delicious for even the most discriminating eye tooth!
June 20- 21, 2008
Hoffman Estates, IL
2007 speaking engagements
San Francisco Amateur Astronomers
Postcards from the Universe
March 21, 2007
7:30 PM
at the Randall Museum
Mount Diablo Astronomical Society
Remotely Possible
August 28, 2007
at the Concord Police Association Facility located at 5060 Avila Road in Concord
Peninsula Astronomical Society
Remotely Possible
September 14, 2007
Foothill College
Los Altos Hills, California
Room 5015
7:30PM
2007 East Coast Conference on Astronomical Imaging (Meeting Cancelled!)
Remotely Possible
September 28-30, 2007
at the Renaissance Philadelphia Hotel- Airport
2007 Advanced Imaging Conference
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