Southeastern Channel looks to the stars in new episode of Northshore Gems
Contact: Tonya Lowentritt
Date: March 28, 2013
SCOPING THE SKIES – The Southeastern Channel's "Northshore Gems" host Rob Moreau explains the upgrade work at LIGO as part of the latest episode which will debut at 8 p.m. Saturday night. The new episode highlights the high-tech LIGO observatory in Livingston Parish and the Pontchartrain Astronomy Club in Washington Parish.
HAMMOND – In its latest version of "Northshore Gems," the Southeastern Channel, Southeastern
Louisiana University's educational access station on Charter Cable, looks through
the north shore's telescope into the heavenlies.
The award-winning series about tourist and travel gems on the North Shore explores
the high-tech LIGO facility near Livingston, one of four laboratories in the world
measuring gravitational disturbances in outer space, along with the Pontchartrain
Astronomy Society, which offers an observatory for stargazing near Franklinton.
The new program debuts at 8 p.m. Saturday and will re-air at 11:30 a.m. Sunday,
7 p.m. Monday, 12:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Friday.
"This new episode uncovers some fascinating, hidden gems to visit on the North
Shore," said Southeastern Channel general manager Rick Settoon. "Many viewers in
this area have no idea that both a space observatory of major global importance and
a fun astronomy club are hidden in rural areas nearby."
LIGO, which stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory, is located
area near Livingston as one of two facilities in the country using lasers to measure
changes in gravitational waves caused by cataclysmic events in outer space, such as
star collisions and black holes.
The site was built by a team of scientists from the National Science Foundation
utilizing an interferometer measuring device and powerful lasers traveling along two
four-kilometer tracks positioned at right angles.
"Northshore Gems" host Rob Moreau explores the facility with staff scientists
to discover how the process works and the science educational opportunities available
for schools and the public.
MIT professor emeritus Rainer Weiss, an original pioneer of gravitational wave
study who designed LIGO several decades ago, explains the scientific process to Moreau
in an interview.
Also included is a walking tour with staff scientist Brian O'Reilly of Ireland,
who discusses the 200-watt laser and current multi-million dollar upgrade to increase
its sensitivity 10-fold.
William Katzman, LIGO's science education director, describes exciting interactive
tours available to the public and how physics students, teachers and classes from
kindergarten through university level benefit from studying at the laboratory.
Southeastern physics professor Sanichiro Yoshida, a former LIGO scientist, and
student Sean Craft discuss their research project with two other physics students
designing and assembling a 60-hertz antenna to measure electromagnetic environmental
changes at LIGO.
In the second half of the show Moreau travels to the Sandras Paulk Memorial Observatory
site near Franklinton in rural Washington Parish to reveal the stargazing activities
of amateur astronomers in the Pontchartrain Astronomy Society.
Moreau tours the observatory, peering through its telescope, and walks through
an observing field with over 20 society members and their telescopes, discussing their
regular viewings of planets, galaxies and nebulae.
Walter Sarrat, the site manager, shows how the society accommodates members and
their families overnight at the observatory with new dormitory and camping facilities
along with provisions for power and cooking.
The new "Northshore Gems" episode was produced, videotaped and edited by Southeastern
Channel staff member Byron Caplan.
The Southeastern Channel, named "Best College TV Station in the South," can be
seen on Charter Cable Channel 18 in Tangipahoa, St. Tammany and Livingston parishes
and on Channel 17 in Washington Parish. Its live 24/7 webcast and video on demand
are viewed in 46 states and 47 countries monthly at www.southeastern.edu/tv.