A List
4/13/04

EXPLANATION FOR 'DARK MOON RAY MYSTERY' OFFERED IN SLU TALK

CANTON – "The NASA Shuttle Launch Dark-Moon-Ray Mystery" is the 
title of the 2004 Alfred Romer Lecture at St. Lawrence University, to 
be presented by Robert Greenler, emeritus professor of physics at the 
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, on Thursday, April 22, at 8 p.m. 
in the auditorium of Hepburn Hall on campus. The event is open to the 
public, free of charge.
      A photograph of the February 7, 2001, launch of the space 
shuttle Atlantis shows a variety of sky effects, the most striking of 
which is a dark ray converging toward (or radiating from) the full 
moon. The photo presents an interesting puzzle that can be understood, 
mostly without any additional information. A variety of effects 
visible in the photo will be discussed by Greenler, with the aid of 
slides, demonstrations and a video segment.
	A recipient of the Millikan Lecture Award of the American 
Association of Physics Teachers and the Esther Hoffman Beller Award 
from the Optical Society of America, Greenler has been instrumental 
in the development of the Laboratory for Surface Studies at Milwaukee, 
an internationally recognized interdisciplinary laboratory that has been 
the focus of much of his research effort. He is the organizer of "The 
Science Bag," a series of public science programs in Milwaukee that has 
had over 150,000 attendees since it began in 1973. Greenler produced a 
series of 30 videotape versions of selected "Science Bag" programs that 
are sold throughout the country for classroom use.
	Another area of Greenler's research concerns the study of optical 
effects of the sky. His book, Rainbows, Halos, and Glories, was 
published by Cambridge University Press in 1980 and has been reprinted 
in paperback edition by Peanut Butter Publishing. This interest in optical 
sky phenomena has taken him on three field trips to the U S Antarctic 
Research Station located at the South Pole.
	The Romer Lecture was established to honor Physics Professor 
Emeritus Alfred Romer, who had been associated with St. Lawrence for over 
50 years. It has been an annual event on campus since 1997.

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