RAS member Steve Bellavia has created a set of excellent observing charts focusing on the Messier objects and the more popular NGC objects. Each chart is printable and shows the more prominent objects with Telrad circles to help you find them in the sky with your finder scope. He has kindly made them available for … Read more
Hooray, we had another STEM Fair, revived from our Covid gap in 2020-2022. The Fair has been picked up by the VCU STEM Education Department, and they successfully pulled off their second one this month. There were about 118 exhibits, and over 200 students who created projects for the competition. The categories were shifted slightly: … Read more
Would you like to take your own picture of the Moon? Come to one of the SMV skywatches, and if the Moon is up, you’ll likely get one. This picture shows a visitor doing that very thing-she has her phone attached to the eyepiece of the telescope, and she’s using the keypad of the telescope … Read more
RAS helped the Virginia Museum of History & Culture host a skywatch for one of their annual member events. The event’s theme was based on the museum’s current exhibit: Apollo: When We Went to the Moon. It was held at one of Richmond’s cultural gems: The Virginia House-a manor house built on a hillside overlooking … Read more
Yes, the STEM Fair has been revived. After three years of COVID shutdowns, VCU’s School of Education Center for Innovation in STEM Education has stepped up and hosted the temprarily dead event. We mourned the loss, as RAS took part in the judgin and presented cash awards to project that utilized astronomy and space science. … Read more
We made it successful, in spite of an oversight. RAS was invited to Oak Knoll Middle School’s StemFest. We’ve attended this event a couple of times, but hadn’t it a few years because of the COVID shutdowns. And we’d always had telescope there for night viewing, but this year, the scheduled time was from 5-7pm, … Read more
We saw a beautiful parade of Jupiter, the Moon, and Saturn last night at the Robious Middle School skywatch. About 50 students and parents gathered on the football field, where RAS had set up five telescopes. Joe Racette, Peter Tlusty, and Terry Barker, all club members, guided each attendee through close up views of each … Read more
This is an update to an earlier post about reading astronomy magazines for free. You may be aware that you can read books online from your local library, but you may not know that you can also read a few astronomy magazines as well. And many more. It took me a while to figure out … Read more
Intermission Beer Company enjoys us setting up in a field next to the brewery. The crowd displays unusual interest–I’m guessing because it seems so incongruous to see telescopes being set up in a party atmosphere. The sky prediction was iffy, but we showed anyway, and we had great luck-the skies cleared, just as it got … Read more
RAS made a few people happy about their telescopes the other night–we fixed them. The Science Museum of Virginia hosted a workshop on Feb. 3, and invited RAS members in to help attendees with their telescopes. One lady brought in one that had sat in her attic for 20 years, unused. Volunteers were Joe Racette, … Read more