The PAARA/FARS annual banquet takes place on Friday evening, January 23, 2009, at Michael’s at Shoreline in Shoreline Park in Mountain View.

Mingling starts at 6:00 pm, followed by dinner at 7:00 and the presentation at 8:00, followed by the raffle.

Reservations are required, and dinner ranges from $27 to $40.

We have an exciting lecture lined up!

What Will the Real ET Be Like?
SETI Institute
Dr. Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute, will update us on the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence. The SETI Institute took over the search from NASA when it decided to discontinue its research, and its mission is to “explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe”. It uses a variety of radio and optical telescopes, including the famous Arecibo Observatory’s radio telescope In Puerto Rico, and most importantly, the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) about 300 miles north of us, consisting of 42 (and ultimately 350) radio telescope antennas, and is designed to provide complete instantaneous frequency coverage from 500 MHz to 11.2 GHz

Seth Shostak has a B.A. in physics from Princeton and a Ph.D. in astronomy from Caltech. He did research in radio astronomy at several observatories before joining SETI. He has published numerous articles in professional journals as well as a number of popular magazines. He is the host of the SETI Institute’s weekly radio program on science. He is also responsible for many outreach activities for the SETI Institute.

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