Richmond Astronomical Society
795th Consecutive Meeting
December 8, 2015
Greetings – approximately 25 in attendance at the meeting.
Jim Browder called our meeting to order in the Eureka meeting room
Announcements / Share Table
• 2016 Astronomical calendars are for sale from Jim Blowers, for $6.50 each.
Events and Individual Observing:
• RAS member observing
• Science Museum
• Fall picnic at Belmead
• Powhatan State Park
Upcoming Events
• Skywatch at TJ High School, Thursday, December 10, 6:00 PM: Thomas Jefferson High School is hosting an astronomy night and RAS astronomers will be providing views of the night sky to parents and students. We should have a good group of visitors, so we will need a few telescopes. Please bring a telescope if you can and also please contact presidenttrichastro.org if you can help with this event. TJ High School is located at 4100 West Grace St. A Google map is at this link https://goo.gl/maps/C2XSCHw7kwD2.
• Christmas star at Belmead, Saturday, December 12, 7:00 PM: Belmead will host a public observing session on December12 along with an indoor presentation on the Christmas star. We will speculate on what the Christmas star might have been and discuss how the appearance of the ancient sky is reconstructed. The indoor Christmas star presentation will begin at 7:00 PM, followed by observing near the mansion as long into the evening as we have the energy and clear skies. Please join us if you can.
Belmead is a beautiful dark sky location in Powhatan County. Below is a link to the entrance of Belmead at 5004 Cartersville Road, Powhatan:
https://goo.gl/mapsIK6VXrPG4VWD2. Once on the Belmead property, follow signs to the mansion.
• Science Museum Skywatch, Friday, December 18, 6:30 PM: Skywatch at the Museum in conjunction with the Museum’s Science After Dark. Please join us and bring a telescope if you can.
• Monthly RAS Meeting, Tuesday, January 12, 7:30 PM: Please join us for our regular monthly meeting at the Science Museum of Virginia and for dinner before the meeting at Arby’s across the street from the museum. For those that cannot attend the meeting in person, we will stream video of the meeting, starting at 7:30 PM, internet bandwidth permitting, at http://www.ustream.tvlchannel/richastro
• Astro-imaging hangouts on Google: Bryan Hartley has been hosting a series of Google hangouts on astro-image processing with Pixinsight. If you want to join in the hangouts, please contact presidentrichastro.org.
• James River State Park — Dark Sky Park efforts: We received an inquiry regarding efforts to obtain Dark Sky Park status for James River State Park. The inquiry was from someone working to support their efforts with astronomy interpretive programs. Anyone interested in working on this project? Please contact president©richastro.org if so.
• RAS 2016 dues are due by the end of the year: This is the time of year we get our dues paid up for the upcoming year. Dues are $30 for regular members, and an additional $10 for trained Observatory staff members. Your dues payment helps us pay for member gatherings, RAS observatory support, student achievement awards along with educational I outreach events and Astronomical League dues. We appreciate the support our members provide through their dues payments and we try to be very good stewards of our funds to make sure we get the greatest benefit possible from our members’ dollars.
Special rate subscriptions are available for members to Astronomy and for Sky and Telescope magazines. Astronomy subscriptions are available at $34 for one year or $60 for two years. Sky and Telescope subscriptions are available for $32.95 for one year.
Please pay your dues by the end of the year to our Treasurer, Jim Blowers, in person at a meeting or with Pay Pal (at http://richastro.org/ras payments.htm), or by US mail to:
Jim Blowers
232 N. Pinetta Drive
North Chesterfield, VA 23235
• Telescopes for sale: Members and friends of RAS have a few telescopes or sale. More detail at http:llrichastro.org/index.phplmailingl. Thanks to all of our members, friends and supporters fora great 2015. May we have an even better 2016.
Have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year