Astrophysicist Dan Klinglesmith demonstrates telescopes for visitors to the 2018 Pie Festival. Kelly Gatlin
Saturday, Aug. 17, friends, students, and colleagues of the late “Dr. Dan, the Astro-Man” will gather for an informal celebration of his life at the Kids’ Science Café, 202 Spruce Street in Magdalena starting at 5 p.m.
“We’ll share a potluck meal, with hot dogs, drinks, and vegetarian ‘not-dogs’ served by the Kids’ Café and sponsored by the Magdalena Astronomical Society, Inc., of which Dan was President,” Magdalena astronomer John Briggs said. “Please bring photos if you have them and favorite recollections of times with our beloved friend.”
A computer and projector will be available if your images are digital.
Briggs said a formal citation has been submitted by Lowell Observatory to the International Astronomical Union for the naming of an asteroid in honor of Klinglesmith.
“He was aware of receiving this honor before his passing,” Briggs said.
The citation reads, “Astrophysicist Daniel A. Klinglesmith III (b. 1939) received his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1967 and has devoted himself to both youth science education and asteroid rotation studies at Etscorn Observatory of New Mexico Tech, a site of the asteroid-oriented Summer Science Program.”
Briggs said the Café has received an excellent Celestron 8 equatorial telescope and a rotating hemispherical observatory dome for a student observatory that will be named in Klinglesmith’s honor.
“This will be an important new fun and educational resource for everyone, right in Magdalena, at the Café,” he said. “We shall have a donation box present Saturday for contributions toward building materials necessary to complete a simple shed structure to support the dome.”
The dome was formerly at UNM.
