The Lincoln Hills Astronomy Group (LHAG) brought Dr. Seth Shostak of SETI Institute to Presentation Hall in Kilaga Springs Lodge. SETI is the acronym for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The SETI mission is to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe.

Wednesday, August 6th, Sun City residents and their guests clustered together in a completely packed Presentation Hall to hear and see Seth ‘s presentation. He is the Senior Astronomer for SETI with a long list of credentials and celebrity guest appearances. The audience was treated to a fascinating slide show with a spicy commentary describing the search for intelligent life in the Universe.

Although the question “ Are we alone in the Universe?” was a prevalent theme through out, we were not alone in our collective response to this unique presentation. Seth’s quick wit and humorous remarks peppered the audience with much laughter and sheer enjoyment.

Seth posed interesting questions about stars and Planets. What fraction of stars have planets? How many Planets would you find around each star? He answers that planets are like kittens – you don’t get a litter of one. So, it may be usual that a star has many Planets.

Telescopes, he said are not perfect. Trying to find Planets, and intelligent life, with optical telescopes is like trying to find a flea against a Hollywood searchlight. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack, and the Universe is the hay.

The Allen Telescope Array is the new world-class “radio” telescope being built to examine millions of star systems for signals. Seth predicts we are the generation who will discover intelligent life. He makes the bold estimate that within two dozen years, and if we are not missing important physics, we will make “contact”.

If you wish to know more about the SETI institute, their web site is: www.seti.org.

This inspiring evening included a raffle of the movie Contact. Seth fielded many questions from the audience with great ease and grace. The audience resonated with excitement at the many possibilities our Universe offers us. Lincolnites look to the future to see if we are really “alone in the Universe.”