Free public lecture: What was the "Miracle of the sun"?

January 30, 2012

Join PCC’s Physics & Astronomy faculty member David Iadevaia for the first Speakers’ Series lecture this spring semester.

Iadevaia will take an astronomer’s perspective to try to answer the question: “What was the “Miracle of the Sun”?  The “Miracle of the Sun” was an event on October 13, 1917. More than 70,000 people who gathered near Fátima, Portugal, claimed to have witnessed an extraordinary solar activity. The sun danced and spun in the sky. It moved from its position and fell toward the earth, petrifying the crowd of people.

Iadevaia established and designed the observatory and teaching planetarium at Pima’s East Campus in 1989. He also established an online astronomy course with real-time telescope observation. Iadevaia specializes in astronomical instrumentation and has done research in archaeoastronomy. His research has taken him to South America, Mexico and throughout the American Southwest. He is active in the Arizona NASA Space Grant education program and is a member of the American Astronomical Society.

The Speakers’ Series is sponsored by the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for the College, Dr. Suzanne Miles, and the PCC Faculty Senate. The next presentation is March 6.  Anne Franklin, mathematics faculty, will discuss her work with Habitat for Humanity International in its Global Village Program.

For additional information, contact Pima Community College at (520) 206-4500.