Club welcomes space scientist

The Ventura County Astronomical Society will hold its monthly meeting at 7:30 p.m. Fri., April 18 in the multipurpose room at Mesa Union School, 3901 Mesa School Road, Somis.

The speaker for the evening will be Dana Backman, who will speak on "A Ringside Seat to Planet Formation: Nearby Stars, Debris Disks and the SOFIA Mission."

Backman is the director of education and public outreach for SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy). He has worked as an infrared observer support scientist at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, a post-doctoral research fellow at NASA-Ames and a professor of physics and astronomy for 12 years at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa.

The meeting is open to the public.

For recorded information, call (805) 520-9666, or visit www.vcas.org.