COCC -Wille Hall- 6:30pm
Here Comes Your Cosmic Perspective: Our New Place in the Universe
Dr. Scott Fisher
Director, Pine Mountain Observatory
University of Oregon, Department of Physics
In this public-level talk that contains pictures and videos from observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope and our own Pine Mountain Observatory, Dr. Fisher will reveal the wonders of the Universe through a lecture on what he calls “The Cosmic Perspective”. The main goal of the lecture will be to connect us to the Universe we inhabit using an easy-to-grasp scale that explains the actual size of the solar system and
Milky Way galaxy. Once we have our new perspective in mind, Dr. Fisher will move into a discussion of one of the most exciting recent discoveries in all of astronomy – the existence of Exo-planets. Exo-planets are planets that are known to orbit stars other than the Sun, as of August 2026 we have confirmed that over 6000 planets exist outside our Solar System. Along the way our speaker will be very open to questions from the audience and is up for a round of “stump the astronomer” with anyone that attends the event!
Dr. Scott Fisher is a faculty member in the University of Oregon Department of Physics where he teaches introductory-level astronomy courses and serves as the Director for Undergraduate Studies for the department. Scott is the Director of Pine Mountain
Observatory, which is located about 30 miles east of Bend, OR in an area with some of the darkest skies left in the continental US. Scott previously worked at the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC where he was responsible for selecting and funding astronomy programs across the United States. Before his time in Washington, Scott was based in Hilo, Hawaii where he worked as a staff scientist of the Gemini Observatory. At Gemini, he worked as an instrument scientist and as a member of the Gemini Outreach team.