By Mike Taylor

Walnut – Mt. San Antonio College will host the 6^th Annual Kepler Distinguished Lecture and Scholarship Dinner, featuring guest lecturer Dr. Eliot Young, on Sat., Apr. 11, at 5 p.m., beginning in the college’s dance studio, Building 2T, Room 121. All proceeds from the event will go to the Mt. SAC Kepler Astronomy Student Scholarship Program.

Young, a principal scientist with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, CO, will be the featured speaker for the event. Dr. Young is known for his work in astronomy with stellar occultations and development of maps of Pluto. His lecture for the evening, “Pluto in Our Sights,” will cover what scientists currently know about Pluto and other similar icy objects in the outer solar system, and what they expect to find out from the New Horizons spacecraft set to encounter the dwarf planet for the first time on July 14.   Mt. SAC awards the Kepler Scholarship each year to four astronomy students for their academic work and additional work within the Astronomy Program. Mt. SAC’s Astronomy Program affords its own planetarium and observatory with a 23-foot rotating astronomy dome that houses the college’s main 16-inch telescope. The observatory deck also includes six other 8-inch telescopes that are available for use by the students and public.

Tickets for the event – which includes dinner and the featured lecture – are $65 before March 27, and $75 after March 27. Tickets are available online at signup.mtsac.edu.
For more information, call Mt. SAC Astronomy Professor and Kepler Scholarship Coordinator, Julie Bray-Ali at (909) 274-4148.