What happens when 3000 astronomers gather in one place? The annual American Astronomical Society meeting puts this question to the test. In this episode, Dean Regas shares what makes a gathering like this so special, reflecting on conversations he had with like-minded astronomers at his first AAS meeting. Special thanks this episode to Diana Hannikainen, Christina Williams, Kevin Legore, Aaron Yung, Allyn Smith and Alex Thomas.
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Episode Transcript: Looking Up is transcribed using a combination of AI speech recognition and human editors. It may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
Dean Regas: What's it like when you get almost 3,000 astronomers from around the world in the same place? I attended my first American Astronomical Society meeting, also known as the AAS, back in January 2026. And this was in Phoenix, Arizona. And it was a lot. Of energy, enthusiasm, nerdy conversations, connecting with old colleagues and presentations that went not only over my head — went way over my head.
From the studios of Cincinnati Public Radio, I'm your host, Dean Regas, and this is Looking Up. The show that takes you deep into the cosmos, or just to the telescope in your backyard, to learn more about what makes this amazing universe of ours so great.
So what even happens at an AAS meeting?
Diana Hannikainen: Oh, there are so many words to describe an American Astronomical Society meeting. You have a gathering of research astronomers and students, and nowadays amateur astronomers as well, all coming together and sharing their passion for astronomy, for the universe, for learning more about the skies around us. And there's an incredible buzz of excitement. And it's a coming together of curious minds and people wanting to share the latest results in their research and learn about what other people are doing. You have to kind of be there to feel the energy. There is so much energy and there's so much excitement.
Dean Regas: That's Diana Hannikainen, the editor in chief at Sky & Telescope magazine. This meeting had 16 featured lectures, 952 oral talks, 1,053 iPosters, 174 meeting sessions and events, 55 exhibitors, and one really cool star party. I was one of about 1,000 first-time attendees, so I need some help. Thankfully, on Day 1 of the conference, I ran into a former student of mine giving a presentation. Maybe he could give me the AAS survival guide.
Alex Thomas: Hello, my name is Alex Thomas. I am a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate at the University of Notre Dame. Hopefully give me a few months and I'll be Dr. Thomas, postdoc somewhere.
Dean Regas: And so as a veteran, what advice do you give to me, a newbie?
Alex Thomas: I think so — I did my first AAS — I tried to do everything, including things like, you know, skipping lunch, skipping downtime. There's just a lot of people, there's a lot of really interesting things. And you have to at some point kind of realize you can't do it all and, like, make sure you prioritize, like, water, relaxing a little bit, kind of like your brain decaf. Because even after, like, Day 1 or 2, I'm like, I'm very tired. Get sleep.
Dean Regas: That's astronomer Allyn Smith, professor at Austin Peay State University and chair of the AAS Historical Astronomy Division. Turns out being tired at this event is a shared experience.
Allyn Smith: Look at everything. Take time to look through everything. Certainly look through the program and see what is of interest. And then find things that you don't think you're interested in and go to those. The press conferences are sometimes a good thing to do. Always try to hit the plenary sessions because that's a new cutting-edge science, generally in different fields.
Dean Regas: OK, OK. So obviously there was plenty of stuff to see and do. So what was the exciting science everyone was talking about this year anyway? I asked my former student, Alex Thomas, what he was looking forward to most.
Alex Thomas: So this was the first time I was able to come in a day or two early and participate in the NASA ExoPAG. It's the Exoplanet Program Analysis Group, I believe is the correct acronym there. It was really nice to kind of come in and see people who I have known for a little while from other conferences and just kind of learn what's the upcoming NASA missions and how those are performing.
Dean Regas: Cool. And so what is your background in astronomy and your field of study?
Alex Thomas: So I do a lot of exoplanet research. I specifically — I would say I'm really interested in kind of what we call architecture. So basically how the planet systems are organized as a structure. I'm really interested in how certain planets affect others. So the formation and dynamical evolution of the orbits of the inner terrestrial planets.
Dean Regas: I can't stress enough how many scientists and academics were in attendance. You never knew what amazing discoveries are being discussed right around the corner. More Looking Up right after this.
Christina Williams: My name is Christina Williams and I work at the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory.I sat in on your talk today and it was really pretty amazing, especially because we think of the James Webb Space Telescope from the flashy pictures, but you're doing some more stuff with some of the data. What can you share about that?
Dean Regas: I sat in on your talk today and it was really pretty amazing, especially because we think of the James Webb Space Telescope from the flashy pictures, but you're doing some more stuff with some of the data. What can you share about that?
Christina Williams: I use the James Webb Space Telescope for imaging primarily. I like to look at pictures to search for distant galaxies. And I use JWST in a sort of unique observing mode where you turn on a second camera while the telescope is taking data with a different instrument, and you record maps of the sky in random locations to sort of search for things that we have not discovered yet.
Dean Regas: And what are some of the cool things you found or seen?
Christina Williams: Oh, well, we found a really distant spiral galaxy. It's one of the most distant that's ever been found. And so that's exciting because we get to see a picture of what early galaxies look like when they're first forming.
Dean Regas: What's the oldest one that you've seen or worked on?
Christina Williams: Well, the oldest one is something like 300 million years after the Big Bang, but we're finding some that could be even earlier all the time. So we just have to take more data to confirm whether or not they're actually that distant.
Dean Regas: Do you ever get some results of galaxy distances that were before the Big Bang?
Christina Williams: No.
Dean Regas: That's what I keep hearing everybody talking — everybody asks me like, "Aren't there things older than the Big Bang?" I was like, "No, I don't think so." So that's what I should say too.
Christina Williams: Yes, I think so. Yeah.
Dean Regas: OK, perfect. Good. I'm glad I'm saying the right thing.
Christina Williams: Yeah.
Dean Regas: Just casually bumping into someone who found a distant spiral galaxy. No big deal.
Now, I had never gone to a meeting of the AAS before because, well, I hate to admit it — it's because I thought they were so exclusive. As in, I wasn't worthy to be a member. I mean, I don't have a Ph.D. I'm not a researcher. I think I got this idea in my head like 20 years ago when maybe it was largely more accurate, but that was the old AAS. Now they're surprisingly welcoming to informal astronomy talkers like myself, as well as amateur astronomers.
The AAS somewhat recently bought Sky & Telescope magazine, and Diana from earlier had nothing but encouraging things to say about it.
Diana Hannikainen: At its core, the American Astronomical Society is an umbrella organization for professional astronomers in the United States, primarily. But sometime in the late 2010s, they wanted to reach out to the amateur community. The amateur astronomical community is incredibly vibrant and very active, and the AAS wanted to reach out to the community, engage more with the amateur community. And so the AAS acquiring Sky & Telescope is a perfect partnership because we have really close ties and connections to the amateur community. We are embedded in the amateur community. The editors here at Sky & Telescope, we participate in many of the activities in the amateur community. We know it very well. And so to have the umbrella organization for professional astronomers own the magazine that caters to the amateur community is, for me, a match made in the heavens.
Dean Regas: With so much to see, there were subgroups to the main American Astronomical Society, including education and historical. I ended up gravitating to those more often than not, and so did Allyn Smith, our convention vet from earlier.
Allyn Smith: The highlights this year were the remembrance for Owen Gingerich and then the business meeting. Just because I'm so involved in trying to herd cats for that.
Dean Regas: Is that what it's like? Astronomers and historians — that's a brutal combination.
Allyn Smith: It is a very brutal combination, but it's a challenge. And so it's something new every day — or old every day. But I learn a lot because history was not my strong point in school.
Dean Regas: I'd say that most of the attendees were students — undergrads and lots of grad students. I was definitely on the older side, but several people recognized me, with many commenting about how they love our podcast. I also met several former students of mine now enmeshed in the field of astronomy.
One interaction, which I regret not having my recorder running for, went something like this. A young woman grad student walked away from her small group of friends and strode up to me to ask, "Hey, are you the guy that was on that TV show? The Looking Up thing?"
"Stargazers," I said a little sheepishly. "Yeah, yeah. That's me."
She turned toward her friends and loudly declared, "I told you. I told you it was him."
That definitely made my day, because I never know how my astronomy outreach would impact people, or how this conference would impact the students that are looking for astronomy jobs.
Aaron Yung: Hi, my name is Aaron Yung. I'm a fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute. So my work is in theoretical astrophysics. Right now, I know it's a little hard — it feels a little hard to find positions in astronomy. But keep trying. I've heard from other folks that I talked to — there are hard times in the past as well. So if you really like astronomy, keep doing it and, you know, look for opportunities in the future. I'm looking myself as well. So who knows what's going to happen next, but do something that you really like, follow your heart, don't trace the trend.
Dean Regas: It's very exciting to see the students gather there and sharing the work on the research that they're doing. That's Diana from Sky & Telescope magazine again.
Diana Hannikainen: Oh, this year, one of the highlights that I found particularly interesting was the fact that in the exhibit hall where there are booths — that representatives from the various organizations like NASA and the National Science Foundation and observatories around the world and so on, they all show off their capabilities, what they do. And they also advertise maybe jobs. Not only that, there were displays showcasing the latest amateur telescopes, too.
Kevin LeGore: Hey everyone, this is Kevin from Sky-Watcher. We're showing our new equipment, things that we think educators might like. It's quite an impressive show. So if you've never been here before, make sure you do your research before even coming. Because the schedules are so dense and packed with so many talks and amazing speakers that you really have to comb through with a fine-tooth comb to even see what you're going to get yourself into.
Dean Regas: What do we have as far as exhibits in the big hall here?
Kevin LeGore: Yeah. So I'm here representing Sky-Watcher. I've worked with them for 12 or 13 years. Our friends from Stellar View are here. ZWO is here. Some of the more amateur stuff is here. This is — I think they're starting to bring more of us in. But then, of course, you have the big guys — Vera Rubin is here showing their brand-new images, which are phenomenal. You've got, of course, NASA, Caltech, Harvard.
Dean Regas: What are the top questions you're getting from people that are stopping by? What are they checking out mostly?
Kevin LeGore: A lot of them are educators, particularly for the solar telescopes. They want to know how they can get them or are they available? What are the advantages for their planetariums or their schools? Of course. Others, they want to see if they can get, like, collections of Dobsonians for classes and stuff like that. So there's a lot of large opportunities here to work with some pretty big colleges to help them expand their education programs in astronomy.
Dean Regas: So wow, what a whirlwind couple of days hanging out with thousands of fellow astronomers. It's good to be with people who are looking up, too — for me, a match made in the heavens.
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Looking Up with Dean Regas is a production of Cincinnati Public Radio. Kevin Reynolds and I created the podcast in 2017. Ella Rowen and Carlos Lopez Cornu produce and edit our show — and need to come with me next year to the AAS meeting in Salt Lake City. Heck, you should all come. Jenell Walton is our vice president of content, and Ronny Salerno is our digital platforms manager. Our theme song is "Possible Light" by Ziv Moran. Our social media coordinator is Hannah Pflum, and our cover art is by Nicole Tiffany. I'm Dean Regas. Keep looking up.
